After floating down a beautiful stretch of 3,000 m., two more islands were reached within a great circle over 200 m. wide. A small tributary entered the Arinos on the right bank. Another island, 500 m. long, was seen farther down, at the end of which, where two channels met again, violent eddies were produced by the meeting of the two strong currents.
Immense quantities of Siphonia elastica were there to be seen on both sides of the stream in the forest, which was getting more and more luxuriant as we proceeded on our journey farther north. Many wild banana palms (bananeira do matto) were to be seen here and there along the lovely, deliciously clean river, with its extraordinarily tidy banks.
Another great basin, 300 m. in diameter, was met, with three islands and two gravel beaches in its centre. The two principal islands—Paolo and Francesca—were each 100 m. long and 50 m. wide.
We now made the acquaintance of the capivara (Hydrochoerus capibara), a rodent which we found common farther down in those waters. It was a stupid animal. When fired at several times by my men it remained perfectly still, gazing at its enemies. It was only when a bullet hit the ground too near that it would move away, surprised more than concerned.
After going down a corrideira (small rapid) we encountered thousands of white and lemon-yellow butterflies. On islets of red earth swarms of them were basking in the sun—which was getting hotter and hotter as we got farther north.
Again we were soon after faced by a high natural wall of brilliant yellow and red colouring. In its western part it showed a white stratum 3 ft. thick upon a layer of yellow lava of an equal thickness. A stratum of lighter yellow was nearest the surface of the water, while above was a thick layer of grey earth. On the right side, at this point, a tributary streamlet flowed into the Arinos. The basin formed by the crescent-shaped wall was perfectly circular. When the river emerged from it, it folded back from 40° b.m. to 290°.
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.
