iras_,
several _pacus_, and two young _jahus_--altogether some 120 lb. in
weight. My men had wasted so much food, and so much had been spoiled by
constant immersions--many of the tinned meats had been altogether spoiled
by the tins having got rusty and gradually perforated--that I was
beginning to feel rather anxious in case our journey should last longer
than I expected. Unfortunately, we had lost most of our salt, and we had
no way of preserving the fish, which we had to leave on the banks,
absolutely wasted. In order, however, to show how lazy my men were, it is
enough to say that, rather than take the slight trouble of placing some
pieces of the excellent fish on board the canoe instead of trusting
entirely to the luck we might have in fishing the next evening, they had
to go the entire day without food. For some reason or other we could not
get a single fish to bite, and we did not find a single bird or monkey to
shoot.

I was rather interested to observe, in looking over my notes, that nearly
all the rocky barriers we had met stretching across the river extended
from south-east to north-west. I believe that similar barriers stretched
in the same direction in the other southern tributaries of the Amazon,
the Xingu and the Madeira Rivers, but, curiously enough, this was not the
case with the River Araguaya.

We had made our camp that particular night on a lovely beach of white
sand, which I found perfectly delicious, but which my men hated, as there
were no trees on which they could hang their hammocks. They did not like
to go into the luxuriant forest of the beautiful island, as they were
afraid to go too far away from me, and I did not wish to go too far away
from the canoe, which we had beached on the gravel bank, in case the
river should rise suddenly or something should happen to make her float
away. As I have said, I never, during the entire journey, let that canoe
go out of my sight for one single moment. The men, therefore, went into
the forest to cut big poles, which they afterwards planted with much
exertion, in the sand near my camp-bed.

Some amusing scenes happened during the night, when the poles gradually
gave way with the weight of the men in the hammocks, and, tumbling down
altogether, gave them severe blows on their heads and bodies.

[Illustration: Crocodile about to attack one of the Dogs of the Expedition.

Photographed by author at a distance of three metres (Rio Arinos-Juruena).]

The st