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° 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—Eleonora Island.
The north-eastern passage was shallow, with a stony bottom. We followed the northern channel along the vertical wall. On leaving the island we came to a stretch 2,500 m. long of beautiful water flowing due north, with ideally fascinating banks embellished by dense vegetation—neat, clean, and healthy—of the richest green.
After crossing a bay, 100 m. wide, with volcanic rocks showing through on both banks and in the river bed, the stream was squeezed through a rocky neck 25 m. wide, and spread again immediately afterwards to its normal width of 50 m. We were beginning to find big rocks more frequently, many in the river channel—a bad sign for us, for I feared we might soon encounter rapids.
Wonderful oleo pardo trees (Myrocarpus frondosus Fr. All.), with their octopus-like branches hanging down to the water, were fairly common in that region. There were two kinds of oleo trees in Brazil—the brown or oleo pardo and the red or oleo vermelho, the latter technically known as Myrospermum erytroxylon Fr. All.
We subsequently entered a basin 150 m. wide which contained a circular island 100 m. in diameter—Horus Island.
Eight hundred metres farther we came to another large circular bay with a large globular mass of lava on its left side. The current was very swift over a nasty rocky bottom. The canoe was suddenly flung by the current between an accumulation of rocks and an island, and, as we found it impossible to turn, floated down at an uncomfortable speed through a narrow channel, dodging as best we could the many ugly rocks just below the surface of the water. At the end of this channel we encountered violent eddies forming wide circles of most treacherous water—although on the surface it looked placid enough.
