th the ragged sleeve of his
shirt.

I thought that a cold bath would do them all good. I ordered them to take
all the animals and baggage across the stream. It was a job of some
difficulty, owing to the very swift current. A rough bridge had to be
constructed over the most dangerous part. The water was freezingly cold.

On leaving the river we at once rose again over another great dome (elev.
2,350 ft.), from which we obtained a most glorious view of other grassy
domes, smooth-looking and well-rounded, with a fringe of forest in the
depressions between. Down below we could see the Rio das Mortes we had
left behind. It came at that spot from the south-east, and after
describing an angle turned to the north-east. From the north-west, at an
elevation of 2,300 ft., descended the Taperinho, a small tributary which
entered the Rio das Mortes.

We went over another domed mount, where I found a spring of most
delicious water emerging in a gurgle from the very summit of the dome, at
an elevation of 2,400 ft. On all sides we had beautiful domed prominences
with wonderful grazing land.

Alcides--careless, like all the others, with his rifle--was nearly killed
that day. His rifle went off accidentally, and the bullet went right
through the brim of his hat, just grazing his forehead. But we were
accustomed to this sort of thing--it had happened so often--and I began
to wonder when bullets would really wound or kill somebody. Indeed, we
had a guardian angel over us.

[Illustration: A Picturesque Waterfall on the S. Lourenco River.]

We had descended into the belt of forest in the depression (elev. 2,270
ft.), where a streamlet flowed to the north-east into the Rio das Mortes.
We were travelling in a north-easterly direction, owing to the formation
of the country; but finding that it would take me too much away from my
intended course I again altered our direction to a course due north. At
an elevation of 2,480 ft. we went over an extraordinary natural bridge of
solidified ashes and earth--a regular tunnel--under which passed a
streamlet of delicious water--the Pulado Stream. The river emerged some
distance off from under the tunnel. Curiously enough, while the
vegetation was quite dense both above and below the natural bridge, there
was no vegetation at all along the hundred metres forming the width of
the bridge. Perhaps that was due to the lack of evaporation in that
section, which supplied the trees elsewhere with moisture.