o the Arinos. The basin formed by the crescent-shaped
wall was perfectly circular. When the river emerged from it, it folded
back from 40 deg. b.m. to 290 deg..

Owing to the steepness of the banks we experienced difficulty in finding
a suitable camping place for the night. Eventually at sunset we had to
clear with our big knives a patch in the dirty forest on the edge of the
stream. I never liked to camp out of sight of the canoe in case anything
happened during the night--an attack, a flood, a forest fire, or anybody
trying to steal or get away with the canoe; the danger from my own men
being quite as great as from any enemy I could have found. I well knew
that if we lost that canoe we were done for entirely.

There was a great falling off in the distance covered that day owing to
the laziness of my men. We had only gone 67 kil. 600 m.--or 22 kil. 250
m. less than the previous day, when we had travelled less hours and gone
easily over a distance of 89 kil. 850 m.

CHAPTER IV

_Oleo Pardo_ Trees--Beautiful Palms--The River Bottom--Swarms of
Butterflies--Millions of Bees--A Continuous Torture

THE night of July 10th was cool--minimum temperature 58 deg. F. When we
departed at 7.10 in the morning the river was extremely tortuous at
first--in one place actually veering from north to due south. On the
right side of us was a lake divided by a low bank, 3 to 5 ft. high, from
the river by which it was fed. The entrance into the lake was narrow. We
had hardly gone 1 kil. when we found ourselves in a great basin 300 m.
long, 200 m. wide, with one large island--Nellie Island--150 m. in
length, and several other small islets in its centre.

Another lagoon was shortly after reached on the right bank, its inlet
being 10 m. wide.

The waters of the Arinos were, at this point, of a leaden placidity. We
seemed to travel slowly now that the current did not help us. The river
was again compressed into a deep channel 50 m. wide. Before us loomed a
cliff 100 ft. high, reflected with irreproachable faithfulness in the
almost still waters of the stream. There was not a breath of wind to
disturb the mirror-like surface, nor to cool our sweating brows in the
stifling heat of the broiling sun. The lower 40 to 60 ft. of the cliff
was red, the upper light yellow--almost white. Where we reached this
rocky wall there was a circle 150 m. in diameter, with a low,
thickly-wooded triangular island, 80 m. long, 100 m. wide--Ele