Isolated Conical Hills with Tower-like Rocky Formation on Summit.
The Endless Campos of Matto Grosso.
As we approached the twin hills they appeared to be the remains of an ancient crater. They formed, in fact, a crescent with a broken rocky lower section—completing the circle of the crater. I had no time to go and examine carefully, as it would have meant a deviation from my route, but that is how it appeared to me. There were, in fact, extra deep deposits of volcanic ashes at the foot of the descent before we arrived at the river Agua Emeindada, where we made our camp that night, 15 kil. from the Rio Barreiros.
My men went after game that night. Alcides killed a veado (deer), and we all enjoyed the fresh meat for dinner.
The clouds (cirro-stratus) were, during the entire day, in horizontal lines and slight globular accumulations, the latter in a row and, taken en masse, giving also the impression of lines just above the horizon to the west. At sunset we once more saw the glorious effect of the radiation from the west, only instead of being straight lines there were, that time, feathery filaments which rose in graceful curves overhead, like so many immense ostrich feathers. They joined again in a common centre to the east.
My men were complaining all the time of the intense cold at night, and made me feel almost as if I had been responsible for it. They grumbled perpetually. During the early hours of the morning their moans were incessant. They never ceased crying, as hysterical young girls might do, but as one would not expect of men. Some of them had toothache—and no wonder, when one looked at their terrible teeth and the way they ate. They devoured pounds of sugar every day—our supply, which should have lasted a year or more, having already almost been exhausted. It was impossible for me alone, with all the astronomical, geological, botanical, geographical, meteorological, photographic, anthropometric, and artistic work—not to mention the writing-up of my copious daily notes—also to keep a constant watch on the supplies. I had handed over that responsibility to Alcides. Unfortunately, he was the greediest of the lot. Every time I warned him not to be so wasteful, as we should find ourselves dying of starvation, he and the others made me feel that I was meanness itself, and that I was only doing it to save money.
I never objected to their eating as much as they could—as I have always made it a point on all my expeditions to feed my men on the best food procurable, and give them as much as they could possibly devour. But it pained me to see quantities of good food thrown away daily, as I knew what it would mean to us later on.