ing shallow. The bed of the river was ever changing, and
supplied me with constant interest. It was adorned with strangely precise
triangles of beautiful white sand exposed through a layer of gravel which
covered most of the river bottom.

A thickly-wooded hill range, 150 ft. high and extending from W.S.W. to
E.N.E., stood to the north of us. Its slopes, eroded by the water, had
caused a landslip, leaving bare vertical red rock for half the height of
the hill-range and two much eroded spurs of bright yellow and white earth
extending into the stream.

The river at that point turned from north to east. Open country was again
on our right after leaving the hill range, and lowlands liable to
inundation. Soon afterwards, however, higher land appeared with banks 35
ft. high.

Swarms of small white butterflies played upon the banks on the edge of
the water.

Sand and gravel mounds were numerous in the centre of the channel, with
occasional basins of shallow water with _corrideiras_ upon them. For
instance, in one of those places for 150 m. the river was only from 1 to
3 ft. deep, and we had to drag the long heavy canoe, which drew 2 ft. of
water, along the undulating gravel bed. In fact, we spent a good deal of
our time every day in the water, pushing or pulling along the canoe over
innumerable obstacles, her great length making it difficult to navigate
her properly through the many shallow and tortuous passages.

In a circular basin, 120 m. in diameter, beyond that point we encountered
strong eddies near the left bank. On the north side big rocks emerged
from the water and a _corrideira_ was formed.

An island 50 m. long and two other islets were separated from the
mainland by two channels, one 20 m. wide and only 3 in. deep--the other
60 m. wide and 3 ft. deep. The right bank was there 45 ft. high.

Fifteen hundred metres farther down we entered another basin 200 m. in
diameter, with an island 80 m. long and eight dry beaches of gravel.

My men were greatly excited in trying to capture a _capivara_ they had
wounded. We actually got the animal on board, but my men were so timid in
going near it that it jumped overboard again and made its escape.

The right bank, which had been high, was now reduced to only 4 ft. above
the water; whereas the left bank rose to a height of 46 ft. A rivulet 3
m. wide coming from the west had cut its way through the latter bank.

The main river was getting more and more magnificent at ev