saw a _passanto_ tree slightly taller--perhaps some 10
to 12 ft. high--most anaemic-looking.

After having travelled some 24 kil. from our last camp we came to a great
expanse of _taquary_, a kind of shrub 3 ft. high with spiky leaves of a
wonderful green colour.

We gazed upon the superb view of an enormous plateau to the west with
deep indentations in its vertical sides. Huge spurs or rams of rock
stretched out across the deep depression, separating the plateau to the
west from the one on which we were standing. Both plateaux were of equal
height, and had evidently at one time formed one immense flat surface. On
our side the plateau showed a huge slip of red volcanic earth, with a
lower stratum parallel to it of baked brown rock. Under it were white
lime and ashes, in sections or drifts. In the centre of the valley formed
by the separation of the two sections there remained a formidable
crater--extinct, of course--with an arc-shaped wall standing erect in its
centre, and other lower walls forming an elongated quadrangular channel
from south-east to north-west in the bottom of the crater. Two
conspicuous monoliths stood up behind the huge lip of the crater to the
south-west at the bottom of the valley, and also other remnants of the
great convulsion of nature which had once taken place there.

[Illustration: A Canon of Matto Grosso.]

Notwithstanding the constant annoyance of my followers, I really enjoyed
my journey over the central plateau. The air was fresh and deliciously
crisp and clear. One could see for miles and miles and distinguish the
smallest detail in the far-away mountain sides, so pure was the
atmosphere. This scene was unlike any in other countries. One could
describe an entire circle around oneself, and nowhere did the eye meet a
column of smoke rising above ground to indicate the presence of man. Not
a bird was to be seen or heard, not a footprint upon the ground of any
beast or creature of any kind. The silence of that land was most
impressive. Our voices--as we spoke--sounded astonishingly and abnormally
sonorous, in that region which for thousands of years had not been
contaminated by sound. It seemed as if the sound-waves, undisturbed by
the myriads of sounds which--as is well known--remain floating in the
atmosphere in inhabited countries, were heard there in all their full and
absolute purity. So much were we all impressed by this fact--my men
unconsciously--that all the men began to sing, s