Water is found only in two small wells; it is called fresh; but even at this time of the year, during the rainy season, it was quite brackish.

In the summer this must be a distressing passage; for now it was sufficiently desolate.
The valley of the Rio Negro, broad as it is, has merely been excavated out of the sandstone plain; for immediately above the bank on which the town stands, a level country commences, which is interrupted only by a few trifling valleys and depressions.
Everywhere the landscape wears the same sterile aspect; a dry gravelly soil supports tufts of brown withered grass, and low scattered bushes, armed with thorns.
Shortly after passing the first spring we came in sight of a famous tree, which the Indians reverence as the altar of Walleechu.

It is situated on a high part of the plain; and hence is a landmark visible at a great distance.

As soon as a tribe of Indians come in sight of it, they offer their adorations by loud shouts.

The tree itself is low, much branched, and thorny: just above the root it has a diameter of about three feet.