Slow Signal Fade ebooks

I heard that the white Cebus, the Caiarara branca, a kind of
monkey I had not yet seen, and wished very much to obtain,
inhabited the forests on the opposite side of the river; so one
day, on an opportunity being afforded by our host going over in a
large boat, I crossed to go in search of it. We were about twenty
persons in all, and the boat was an old rickety affair with the
gaping seams rudely stuffed with tow and pitch. In addition to
the human freight we took three sheep with us, which Captain
Antonio had just received from Santarem and was going to add to
his new cattle farm on the other side. Ten Indian paddlers
carried us quickly across. The breadth of the river could not be
less than three miles, and the current was scarcely perceptible.
When a boat has to cross the main Amazons, it is obliged to
ascend along the banks for half a mile or more to allow for
drifting by the current; in this lower part of the Tapajos this
is not necessary. When about halfway, the sheep, in moving about,
kicked a hole in the bottom of the boat.


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