.

The formation of the clouds was always interesting. The long horizontal
streaks across the sky, which were daily noticeable, took a form that day
not unlike the vertebrae of an immense snake, whereas the higher clouds of
transparent mist in filaments looked exactly like a huge spider's web.

We established our camp under a tall, handsome, slender _Xinghi_-tree,
the triangular fruit of which, with a light brown, hard skin, was deadly
poisonous if eaten. Alcides told me that in Minas Geraes it was much used
in the manufacture of soap. This tree was extremely neat-looking, with
its clean sinuous branches and its pretty, light green, healthy leaves,
of an elongated oval shape.

[Illustration: Volcanic Scenery of Matto Grosso.

Chapada in foreground.]

[Illustration: Peculiar Formation of Central Plateau.]

My men had insisted on bringing dogs away with us for safety in case of
attack by Indians. They had in fact procured three--I would not care to
say how--before our departure from the Goyaz Province. Those dogs were
just as faithless and lazy and worthless as the people. They followed us
because they got plenty of food, otherwise they had no affection for
anybody; and, far from giving an alarm when any person or any animal
approached the camp, they were quite unmoved by anything that happened
around them during the day or night, except at meal-times. A handsome
_onca_ (jaguar) leapt close to camp, and on perceiving us bounded
gracefully away--the dogs remaining fast asleep with their noses resting
on their respective extended fore-paws. Another day during the march a
_veado_ (_Cervus elaphus_), a deer, sprang in his flight clean over
one of the dogs without the dog even noticing him! Game was plentiful in
that part of the country, and the animals were so unaccustomed to see
people, that one could get quite near them.

My men went after game in the morning and we did not make an early start,
in fact not until 10.30 a.m. It was amazing to see the amount of good
water that was to be found on the plateau. We crossed a streamlet flowing
south (elev. 1,300 ft.), and shortly afterwards, upon gently inclined
land, we crossed another stream, also flowing south.

We were travelling due west along the foot of a curious range which stood
to our north and of another of similar characteristics to the south. It
seemed quite possible, in fact, even probable, that the two ranges were
formerly only one, which had then split, and