configuration of the
country directly underneath them. That was due, no doubt, to the air
currents diverted by the obstacles on the earth's surface, which caused
the masses of mist above to assume similar forms--but of course, as I
have said, upside-down.

We were still at an elevation of 2,150 ft. The temperature during the
night went down to 52 deg. Fahr. My men, as usual, suffered intensely from
the cold--at least, judging by the noise they made, the moans and groans
and chattering of teeth. They nearly all had violent toothache. Alcides,
too, apparently went through agony, but he showed a little more manliness
than the rest and did not make quite such a pitiful exhibition of
himself.

It was curious how certain racial characteristics were difficult to
suppress in individuals. Alcides had some German blood in him--rather far
removed. He could not speak German, nor did he know anything about
Germany. Yet German characteristics came out in him constantly. For
instance, the uncontrollable desire to write his own name and that of his
lady-love on trees and rocks all along our passage. Alcides was really
very good at calligraphy, and some of his inscriptions and ornamentations
were real works of art. Many half-hours did we have to waste at the
different camps, waiting for Alcides to finish up the record of his
passage in that country, and many blades of penknives--I had a good
supply of them to give as presents to natives--did he render useless in
incising the lettering on the trees and stones.

[Illustration: Author's Troop of Animals wading across a Shallow Stream.]

Filippe the negro--who was the best-natured of the lot--had become quite
swelled-headed with the big salary he received. Arithmetic was not his
forte. As he could hardly write, he was trying to work out, with a number
of sticks--each representing one day's salary--how much money he had
already earned, and how much more he was likely to earn. It evidently
seemed to him a large fortune--indeed it was--and his plans of what he
would do with all that money in the future were amusing. First of all,
the _idee fixe_ in his mind was the purchase of a _mallettinha_, a small
trunk with a strong lock, in which to keep his money and his clothes. I
took advantage of this to tell Filippe--they were all just like spoiled
children--that the best place for _mallettinhas_ was Manaos, our chief
objective on the River Amazon, some 1,800 kil. away from that point as
the cro