by contrast with a beautiful beach of
immaculate white sand on the left side of the great elbow.

I observed a wonderful double lunar halo on the night of July 7-8, the
outer circle in successive tints of most delicate yellow, orange, pale
blue and white--the yellow being nearest the centre.

CHAPTER III

Dangerous Navigation--Eddies--Whirlpools--An Extraordinary
Creature--The Man X.--Pedro de Toledo Island--An Interesting
Rodent

WE were rather proud of ourselves, as we had gone 69 kils. on July 7th,
paddling away--barring the interval for lunch--from 7.15 in the morning
until 7.30 at night.

The night was fairly cold--minimum 57 deg. Fahr.; the elevation 1,100 ft.
Where I made camp at the elbow of the stream (on the left bank) there
were innumerable rubber trees. A similar wealth of _Siphonia elastica_
appeared to be on the opposite bank, where the forest was luxuriant.

On July 8th we began our journey by going down rapids. Then after some
15,300 m. of fairly smooth navigation we crossed a basin 130 m. wide,
where we encountered strong eddies--most unpleasant, as they swerved the
canoe about in a way that was alarming. Lower down a swift _corrideira_
and more eddies gave us some trouble.

A beautiful _ariranha_ peeped out of the water close to the canoe,
spitting angrily at us. It was attracted by the blood-red of the English
flag, which it evidently wanted to bite. My men fired and wounded it; but
so vicious were those little otters, and so great their craving for
blood, that it still came on to within a foot or two of the canoe, when
my men killed it.

The river was there compressed into a deep channel, 85 m. wide, with a
strong current, after which it split into two arms--one north-west, 25 m.
wide; the other north-east, 30 m. broad. The island thus formed between
the two arms was 2,500 m. long. We called it Ariranha Island.

A streamlet 3 m. wide entered the Arinos on the right bank. Where the
banks were free from vegetation an undulating stratum of red earth was
exposed, directly above which was a stratum from 1 to 2 ft. thick of a
brilliant yellow colour. Above that rested the usual grey alluvial
deposits from 6 to 8 ft. thick.

From a direction due west the stream suddenly turned north, between high
banks. A strong _corrideira_ was found before the stream divided itself
into three arms--two of those arms flowing north-east, the other
north-west. We followed the latter--a chan