Slow Signal Fade ebooks

Here we anchored and spent half a day ashore. Penna's object in
stopping was simply to enjoy a ramble on the sands with the
children, and give Senora Katita an opportunity to wash the
linen. The sandbank was now fast going under water with the rise
of the river; in the middle of the dry season it is about a mile
long and half a mile in width. The canoe-men delight in these
open spaces, which are a great relief to the monotony of the
forest that clothes the land in every other part of the river.
Farther westward they are much more frequent, and of larger
extent. They lie generally at the upper end of islands; in fact,
the latter originate in accretions of vegetable matter formed by
plants and trees growing on a shoal. The island was wooded
chiefly with the trumpet tree (Cecropia peltata), which has a
hollow stem and smooth pale bark. The leaves are similar in shape
to those of the horse-chestnut, but immensely larger; beneath
they are white, and when the welcome trade-wind blows they show
their silvery undersides--a pleasant signal to the weary canoe
traveller.


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