Across Unknown South America Part 27

As we got higher again and I stood on a projecting promontory, another wonderful view spread itself before me. The sun, nearly setting, in glorious white radiations, cast deep blue and violet-coloured shadows upon the great abyss to my right (N.W.) which was a kilometre or more in diameter and more than 300 ft. deep--surely another great crater. It seemed as if a natural wall of rock must have once existed, joining the promontory on which I stood to the great ma.s.s of prismatic red volcanic rock to the west of us, and ending in a flat triangle with a wide base.

The surface soil on the height of the peninsula was of spattered lava and black broiled rock and pellets.

The bottom of the abyss formed two sweeping undulations--the second from the centre much higher than the first--seemingly a great wave of lava vomited by the crater, by which probably the destruction of the wall joining the peninsula had been caused.

To the S.S.E. in the distance stood a high mountain range--or rather a great flat-topped plateau of delicious cobalt blue shades, almost losing itself in the sky. To the east, completing the circle, were two other great spurs of red-baked rock, with precipitous, almost vertical, sides and with much-striated b.u.t.tresses that ended in conical mounds--eroded into that shape by the action of water and wind.

To the south, beyond, a sloping table-land with a p.r.o.nounced dip eastward extended from east to west. It towered over everything, and was shaped like a trapezium. In front of this sloping table-land was another long flat-topped range, stretching from E.S.E. to W.N.W. Again in front of this, could be seen an interesting series of prismatic mounds--like parallel barriers. To the S.S.W. rose a large mountainous ma.s.s--another plateau. Then came a second range, cut into clear pyramids with rectangular bases, and, beyond, a great expanse of lovely green with some large mounds of a similar shape to those already described. Two more pyramids were also to be observed far, far in the distance, while others of a slightly less angular shape were noticeable upon the great flat stretch due west.

Right under us, at the bottom of the precipice, was thick forest covering, zigzag fas.h.i.+on, the two depressions, roughly in a general direction of south-east to north-west. Those two depressions drained that immense basin. It was there that the streamlet Caxoeirinha had its birth.

The Caxoeirinha flowed north-west and fell into the Ponte de Pedra River, which flowed south. Those two streams, with a number of others, formed the head-waters of the great S. Lourenco River, a formidable tributary of the Rio Paraguay or Parana.

An extraordinary effect of clouds could be seen that day, and a similar occurrence I saw on many other occasions upon the table-lands of Matto Grosso. The clouds reproduced--upside-down--the configuration of the country directly underneath them. That was due, no doubt, to the air currents diverted by the obstacles on the earth's surface, which caused the ma.s.ses of mist above to a.s.sume similar forms--but of course, as I have said, upside-down.

We were still at an elevation of 2,150 ft. The temperature during the night went down to 52 Fahr. My men, as usual, suffered intensely from the cold--at least, judging by the noise they made, the moans and groans and chattering of teeth. They nearly all had violent toothache. Alcides, too, apparently went through agony, but he showed a little more manliness than the rest and did not make quite such a pitiful exhibition of himself.

It was curious how certain racial characteristics were difficult to suppress in individuals. Alcides had some German blood in him--rather far removed. He could not speak German, nor did he know anything about Germany. Yet German characteristics came out in him constantly. For instance, the uncontrollable desire to write his own name and that of his lady-love on trees and rocks all along our pa.s.sage. Alcides was really very good at calligraphy, and some of his inscriptions and ornamentations were real works of art. Many half-hours did we have to waste at the different camps, waiting for Alcides to finish up the record of his pa.s.sage in that country, and many blades of penknives--I had a good supply of them to give as presents to natives--did he render useless in incising the lettering on the trees and stones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Author's Troop of Animals wading across a Shallow Stream.]

Filippe the negro--who was the best-natured of the lot--had become quite swelled-headed with the big salary he received. Arithmetic was not his forte. As he could hardly write, he was trying to work out, with a number of sticks--each representing one day's salary--how much money he had already earned, and how much more he was likely to earn. It evidently seemed to him a large fortune--indeed it was--and his plans of what he would do with all that money in the future were amusing. First of all, the _idee fixe_ in his mind was the purchase of a _mallettinha_, a small trunk with a strong lock, in which to keep his money and his clothes. I took advantage of this to tell Filippe--they were all just like spoiled children--that the best place for _mallettinhas_ was Manaos, our chief objective on the River Amazon, some 1,800 kil. away from that point as the crow flew, and about four times, at least, that distance by the way we should travel. Many times a day I had to repeat to Filippe glowing descriptions of the wonders of the _mallettinhas_, and I got him so enamoured of the _mallettinhas_ to be got at Manaos that I made certain that Filippe at least would come along and not leave me. I was sure of one thing--that nowhere in the intervening country would he be able to procure himself a little trunk--nor, indeed, could one procure oneself anything else.

I supplied my men with ample tobacco. Filippe was all day and a great part of the night smoking a pipe. Owing to constant quarrels among my men, I had turned him into a cook. When in camp he had to sit hour after hour watching the boiling of the _feijo_. Enveloped in clouds of smoke, Filippe with his pipe sat in a reverie, dreaming about the _mallettinha_.

He was quite a good fellow, and at any rate he did work when ordered.

All my men had been given small pocket mirrors--without which no Brazilian will travel anywhere. It was amusing to watch them, a hundred times a day, gazing at the reflection of their faces in the gla.s.ses. It was nevertheless somewhat trying to one's temper when one ordered a man to do something and then had to watch him for an endless time admiring his own features in the little mirror, and one had to repeat the order half a dozen times before the gla.s.s was duly cleaned with his elbow or upon his trousers and set at rest, and the order carelessly obeyed. Even Alcides--who was far superior to the others in education--could not be kept away from his mirror. While riding he would all the time be gazing at his features instead of looking at the beautiful scenery around us.

On leaving camp we again reached the summit of the plateau (elev. 2,300 ft.), with its patches of red volcanic earth, violet-coloured sand, and snuff-coloured dust--extremely fine in quality. After crossing a streamlet flowing south, we again continued our journey on the flat plateau, slightly higher at that point, or 2,400 ft.

We were in the great plain crossed by the Ponte de Pedra rivulet, flowing southward. Once more we obtained a gorgeous view looking south. Four parallel ranges stretching roughly from south-east to north-west stood in all their grandeur before us. They were of brilliant red volcanic rock.

On the second range, from us, rose a curious square block of rock of gigantic size, resembling a castle with its door and all. In the distance, to the south-west, erosion seemed to have taken place on a great scale in the side of the table-land.

The highest point we had so far reached on the plateau on which we were travelling since leaving the Araguaya was 2,400 ft. There again we found another of the extensive gra.s.sy _cuvettes_--the flat bottom of which was only 30 ft. lower than the highest point of the plateau. A luxuriant growth of _burity_ palms and _birero_ trees adorned the centre, the latter very tall and handsome, with smooth white bark and only a dense tuft of dark green foliage at their tops. In the _cuvettes_ I saw, the growth of the tall vegetation invariably ran the long way of the oval.

The sky that evening showed great streaks of transparent lines of mist from west to east, the central radiation of these being formed of lines so precisely parallel that they seemed to have been drawn with rule and dividers. Directly overhead those lines gradually blended into a more indefinite ma.s.s. The radiations did not begin from the vanis.h.i.+ng sun on the horizon, nor at the point diametrically opposite on the east, but began to appear only one-tenth up the entire circle of the sky, both west and east.

Almost globular cloudlets, with the lower section cut off in a horizontal plane--quite typical, as we have seen, of the cloud formation on that Central Brazilian plateau--crowded the sky, quite low to the north, and also a great many small ball-like clouds which showed with some brilliancy against the blue sky.

The sunsets in Central Brazil were to me always a source of intense joy, interest, and admiration. With certain characteristics which repeated themselves frequently, they always displayed wonderful effects of light and a most peculiar formation of clouds.

Before reaching camp we pa.s.sed another oval _cuvette_ with a longitudinal row of trees--so green and tidy as to be just like a portion of a well-kept English park (elev. 2,350 ft.). Another bit of wonderful scenery, with immense prismatic rocky mountains--really more like d.y.k.es--appeared in the distance; and also a vertical walled mountain in the foreground.

CHAPTER XXI

A Beautiful Lagoon--Strange Lunar Display--Waves of Lava--Curious Grottoes--Rock Carvings--A Beautiful Waterfall

WE camped at the Lagoa Formosa--or "Beautiful Lagoon"--a large, verdant, oval-shaped lagoon, entirely covered with gra.s.s, only 140 ft. lower than the top of the plateau (elev. 2,290 ft.). Barring a slight undulation in the land to the north-east of the marsh, the country was there absolutely flat.

At night I witnessed a marvellous lunar effect. The half-moon was high up in the sky. Soon after sunset two immense concentric arches of mist, with their centres on the horizon to the east, shone like silver rings, their upper edges being lighted by the bluish light of the moon. With the reflection of this in the still waters of the lagoon, the effect was enchanting and intensely picturesque.

My men suffered a great deal from the damp--they were always suffering from everything: from the heat of the sun, the rain, the cold, the long marches.

That night we had a minimum temperature of 51 Fahr., the elevation of our camp being 2,150 ft.

Naturally, over the expanse of water the sunrise was wonderful. The sky was well covered by feathery radiations from the north-east, which were intersected by striations shooting skyward from east to west and forming a charming design. The radiations from the north-east reached right across the sky as far as the horizon to the south-west. What astonished me most in Matto Grosso was the characteristic immobility of the clouds.

In the day-time they remained sometimes for hours with hardly any changes or movement. As soon as the sun appeared, rendering the lower sky of a golden yellow and of vivid Indian red above, the northern part of the lagoon was enveloped in mist, which rose in angular blocks, vertical on the south side, slanting at a sharp angle on the north. These pointed peaks of mist remained immobile--as if they had been solid--until the sun was well up in the sky.

I went once more to gaze at the glorious panorama. In the morning light new and important details were revealed, such as a strange series of d.y.k.es of a prismatic shape, of which I could count as many as seven.

Great transverse depressions or grooves--from S.S.E. to N.N.W., with a dip S.S.E.--could in that light be now plainly detected, and this time two great square castles of rock--instead of one--were disclosed upon the third range of undulations.

The high ridge to the south-west displayed a subsidence on a large scale in its central portion, where bare vertical red walls had been left standing on each side.

Then there were other curious concave depressions or gateways formed in the great table-land--which had for its marked characteristic concave curves on all its slopes.

On leaving camp--nearly at noon, after a serious quarrel and fight among my men, which left me worried to death by the petty nonsense and incessant grumbling of my followers--we journeyed at an elevation of 2,300 ft., finding shortly after an almost circular _cuvette_ of deep grey cinders, 100 ft. deep (elevation at the bottom 2,200 ft.).

Twelve kilometres farther on we came upon another great depression extending from east to west, with an enormous belt of gra.s.sy land. There was the usual cl.u.s.ter of trees and palms in the centre, but larger than usual. To the south were campos--lovely prairies--with spa.r.s.e and stunted trees--chiefly _Goma arabica_ or acacias.

The elevation of the upper edge of the _cuvette_ was 2,500 ft., that of the bottom 2,450 ft. We continued our journey on the top of the plateau, with slight undulations varying in height from 50 to 70 ft.

Snuff-coloured soil and red sand were invariably noticeable on the higher points, and grey ashes in the lower points, where erosion had caused depressions.

Then, farther on, the plateau, with an elevation of 2,450 ft., was absolutely flat for several kilometres, and showed spa.r.s.e vegetation and miserable-looking anaemic trees--the thin soil over solid rock affording them inadequate nourishment.

Eighteen kilometres from our last camp we came upon another oval basin (elev. 2,400 ft. above the sea level), extending longitudinally from N.N.E. to S.S.W. On its huge deposits of cinders grew deliciously green, fresh-looking, healthy gra.s.s, and a thick clump of _burity_ palms, and _birero_ trees of immense height and thick foliage. Those beautiful trees were called by the people of Goyaz "_cutiba_" and "_pintahyba_." They were marvellous in their wonderful alignment among the surrounding circle of gorgeous palms. The latter were in their turn screened in their lower part by a belt of low scrub--so that upon looking at that oasis one could hardly realize that it had not been geometrically laid out by the hands of a skilful gardener.

On the outer rim of the _cuvette_--away from the moisture--hundreds, in fact, thousands of cones, cylinders and domes, from 4 to 6 ft. high, the work of ants, could be seen, all constructed of bluish grey ashes.

We had here a wonderful example, quite sufficient to persuade the most sceptical, of the influence of agglomerations of trees in the formation of clouds. The sky was perfectly clear everywhere except directly above the extensive cl.u.s.ter of trees in the large _cuvette_. Quite low down--only a hundred feet or so above the top of the trees--there hung a heavy white cloud. It was a windless day. The cloud ended on all sides exactly where the trees ended, as sharply as if it had been cut with a knife. It looked exactly like a rectangular canopy over the luxuriant vegetation. This appearance was intensified by undulations in the lower part of the cloud, like festoons.

In proceeding across the immense circular _cuvette_ I found that the central line of thick vegetation formed an angle. A streamlet of delicious crystal-like water emerged from among the trees. On its bank lay the skeletons of three mules, suggesting a tragedy.

On leaving the great _cuvette_ we rose again to the top of the plateau, 2,550 ft. above sea level. On descending from a large dome to the west over red volcanic sand and red earth, half consolidated into rock easily friable under slight pressure, we were once more travelling across immense campos in a depression of fine cinders and earth, extending from north to south, at an elevation of 2,400 ft. We further traversed two other less important depressions, the deepest being at an elevation of 2,350 ft.

The jutting headlands of the plateau on which we had travelled were all most precipitous--nearly vertical--and of solid dark red volcanic rock.

A magnificent view next confronted us to the south. A huge black square block with a crater was before us, and there appeared what seemed to me to be the remaining sections of a huge volcanic vent and several smaller funnels. The lower lip of the crater formed a terrace. Then another wider crater could be perceived in a circular hollow of the spur of the plateau on which we had travelled, and which stretched out into the underlying plain. That spur extended from north-east to south-west, and in it two circular hollows of great size could be noticed, the sides of which were deeply fluted.

During the entire march that day we had seen quant.i.ties of violet-coloured deposits made up of tiny crystals, carbonized and pulverized rock and ferruginous dust.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Central Cl.u.s.ter of Trees and Palms in a Cuvette (Matto Grosso).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Giant Wave of Lava.]

On descending from the summit of the plateau, by a very steep slope, we saw many shrubs of _sapatinho_, a medicinal plant of the genus _euphorbiaceae_ (Euphorbia), growing in the interstices of red igneous rock, and among quant.i.ties of debris of marble, crystals, and eruptive pebbles.

During the night we had a magnificent lunar display. There was a good deal of moisture in the air, and mist. First of all a gorgeous lunar halo was observed, which later vanished to leave room for a most extraordinary geometrical design upon the partly moon-illuminated clouds and ma.s.ses of mist. A most perfect luminous equilateral triangle appeared, with its apex downwards to the west and the half-moon in the central point of the base-line of the triangle above. On either side of the apex of the triangle faint concentric circles blended away into the sky near the horizon. Later in the night that curious effect disappeared and a multiple lunar rainbow of amazing beauty and perfection was to be admired.