-the highest--resembled a castle with vertical
sides. But of this we have already spoken, at the terminal point of the
great divided range we had passed some days previously. The vertical
cliffs of the plateau, where lighted by the sun, were of a brilliant red
colour.

[Illustration: Isolated Conical Hills with Tower-like Rocky
Formation on Summit.]

[Illustration: The Endless Campos of Matto Grosso.]

As we approached the twin hills they appeared to be the remains of an
ancient crater. They formed, in fact, a crescent with a broken rocky
lower section--completing the circle of the crater. I had no time to go
and examine carefully, as it would have meant a deviation from my route,
but that is how it appeared to me. There were, in fact, extra deep
deposits of volcanic ashes at the foot of the descent before we arrived
at the river Agua Emeindada, where we made our camp that night, 15 kil.
from the Rio Barreiros.

My men went after game that night. Alcides killed a _veado_ (deer), and
we all enjoyed the fresh meat for dinner.

The clouds (cirro-stratus) were, during the entire day, in horizontal
lines and slight globular accumulations, the latter in a row and, taken
_en masse_, giving also the impression of lines just above the horizon to
the west. At sunset we once more saw the glorious effect of the radiation
from the west, only instead of being straight lines there were, that
time, feathery filaments which rose in graceful curves overhead, like so
many immense ostrich feathers. They joined again in a common centre to
the east.

My men were complaining all the time of the intense cold at night, and
made me feel almost as if I had been responsible for it. They grumbled
perpetually. During the early hours of the morning their moans were
incessant. They never ceased crying, as hysterical young girls might do,
but as one would not expect of men. Some of them had toothache--and no
wonder, when one looked at their terrible teeth and the way they ate.
They devoured pounds of sugar every day--our supply, which should have
lasted a year or more, having already almost been exhausted. It was
impossible for me alone, with all the astronomical, geological,
botanical, geographical, meteorological, photographic, anthropometric,
and artistic work--not to mention the writing-up of my copious daily
notes--also to keep a constant watch on the supplies. I had handed over
that responsibility to Alcides. Unfortunately, he was the gree