le mud.[123] The _plaias_ are not
auriferous. Below Coca there is a wilderness of lagunes, all connected
with the river, the undisturbed retreat of innumerable water-fowl. The
only spot on the Napo where the underlying rocks are exposed is near
Napo village. There it is a dark slate, gently dipping east. Farther
west, in fact, throughout this side of the Andes, the prevailing rock is
mica-schist. But the entire Napo country is covered with an alluvial
bed, on the average ten feet thick.

[Footnote 122: Its actual source is the Rio del Valle, which runs
northward through the Valle Vicioso. Its longest tributary, the Curaray,
rises only a few miles to the south in the Cordillera de los Mulatos.
The two rivers run side by side 4 deg. of longitude before meeting. Coca,
the northern branch, originates in the flanks of Cayambi. The Napo and
its branches are represented incorrectly in every map we have examined.
The Aguarico is confounded with the Santa Maria and made too long, and
the Curaray is represented too far above the mouth of the Napo. There
are no settlements between Coca and Camindo.]

[Footnote 123: From specimens of sand which we obtained at different
points in descending the river, we find that at Coca it contains 17.5
per cent. of pure quartz grains, the rest being colored dark with
augite: at the mouth of the Napo there is 50 per cent. of pure quartz,
the other half being light-colored and feldspathic.]

CHAPTER XIV.

Afloat on the Napo.--Down the Rapids.--Santa Rosa and its mulish
Alcalde.--Pratt on Discipline.--Forest Music.--Coca.--Our Craft and
Crew.--Storm on the Napo.

We embarked November 20th on our voyage down the river. It is no easy
matter to hire or cajole the Indians for any service. Out of feast-time
they are out of town, and during the festival they are loth to leave, or
are so full of chicha they do not know what they want. We first woke up
the indolent alcalde by showing him the President's order, and then used
him to entice or to compel (we know not his motive power) eight Indians,
including the governor, to take us to Santa Rosa. We paid them about
twenty-four yards of lienzo, the usual currency here. They furnished
three canoes, two for baggage and one covered with a palm-leaf awning
for ourselves. The canoes were of red cedar, and flat-bottomed; the
paddles had oval blades, to which short, quick strokes were given
perpendicularly to the water entering and leaving