ere was no mistake as to how those two rocks
had got there. They had fallen from above, one on the top of the other. A
proof of this lay in the fact that they had arrived with such force that
the base had split at the point of contact. As there was no hill above or
near those rocks, there was little doubt that they had been flung there
by volcanic action.

We were in a region of extraordinary interest and surprises. In the plain
which extended before us there stood two conical hills in the far
north-west, and three other hills, dome-like, each isolated, but in a
most perfect alignment with the others, towards the east. Close to us
were giant domes of rock, the surface of which formed marvellous
geometrical designs of such regularity that had they been on a smaller
scale one might have suspected them of being the work of human beings;
but they were not, as we shall see presently.

CHAPTER XVIII

The Salesian Fathers--A Volcanic Zone

WE arrived at the chief colony of the Salesians, Sagrado Coracao de Jesus
(Tachos). There, thanks to the great kindness and hospitality of the
Fathers, and also owing to the amount of interesting matter I found from
a geological and anthropological point of view, I decided to halt for a
day or two.

The Salesians had come to that spot, not by the way I had gone, but by an
easier way via Buenos Aires and the Paraguay River, navigable as far as
Cuyaba, the capital of Matto Grosso. The friars had done wonderful work
in many parts of the State of Matto Grosso. In fact, what little good in
the way of civilization had been done in that State had been done almost
entirely by those monks. They had established an excellent college in
Cuyaba, where all kinds of trades and professions were taught. In the
port of Corumba a similar school was established, and then there were the
several colonies among the Indians, such as the Sagrado Coracao de Jesus
on the Rio Barreiro, the Immaculada Conceicao on the Rio das Garcas, the
Sangradouro Colony, and the Palmeiras.

[Illustration: The Observatory at the Salesian Colony.

(Padre Colbacchini in the Foreground.)]

[Illustration: Bororo Women and Children.]

As in this work I have limited myself to write on things which have come
directly under my observation, I shall not have an opportunity of
speaking of the work of the Salesians at Cuyaba or Corumba--two cities
I did not visit--but I feel it my duty to say a few words on the work of
sac