All the women
wore, rather becomingly over such ugly countenances, the valuable hats
which generally go under the name of "Panamas." The river was getting
beautiful as we went farther up, immense grassy stretches being visible
where the country was not inundated, and low shrubs emerging from the
water in the many channels that were formed everywhere.

[Illustration: A. B. Leguia, the President of the Peruvian Republic.]

On January 5th we arrived at Terra Blanca, where a lakelet had been
formed by an outlet of the river on the left bank. A place called
Pernambuco was situated at the entrance of this lake. The water of the
lake was beautifully clear and of a wonderful greenish colour.
Beautiful white and yellow sand deposits were to be found around it. Five
hundred people lived at Pernambuco. The _Rimac_ did a brisk trade, over a
hundred pounds sterling worth of goods being sold in an hour at that
place.

On January 6th I saw the first hills of importance we had seen since
leaving the lower Amazon. Those were the hills of Petronilla, where a
mass of volcanic rocks and some interesting hot springs were to be found.
A ridge ran from south-east to north-west in symmetrical undulations up
to 1,000 ft. from Petronilla to Cancha Huayo. It rose quite abruptly from
the flat alluvial land. Where a land-slide had occurred it showed an
upper stratum of grey alluvial deposit 10 ft. thick, with soft yellow
volcanic rock underneath, in a stratum of 30 ft. thick. It seemed as if
that hill had been lifted up by volcanic pressure from underneath, as a
lot of white and yellow sand had been brought to the surface, which
evidently formed a substratum in the Ucayalli region.

We found strong whirlpools where the channel of the river formed an elbow
at the foot of the mountain. The steam launch made poor progress against
the strong current.

On January 7th we arrived at the large settlement of Condamano, a
sub-Prefecture in the big province of Loreto. There were two parallel
streets, clean and well kept, with others intersecting at right angles.
On the main street along the water front were many large commercial
houses, handsome buildings of _cana_ walls and zinc roofs. The place had
been built on a flat high land about 30 ft. above the river, and had
some 1,500 to 2,000 inhabitants. One of the peculiarities of Condamano
was that during the rubber-collecting season the population consisted
almost entirely of women, as the men were in th