We entered the Geräes on the afternoon of the same day we arrived at Santa Maria, but the first part of our journey was far from auspicious. Our route was westward along the banks of the Rio Preto, which was lined with Buriti and Buritizana palms, and numerous flowering shrubs. After we had gone about two leagues, the sky to the westward became very black, and shortly afterwards distant thunder was heard. We halted by the side of the river under some large trees, but before we could get a shelter arranged the storm reached us. The lightning was very vivid, the thunder loud, and the rain came pouring down in torrents; by fixing up two large hides to the branches above us, they afforded a tolerable shelter. As soon as the storm passed over we enlarged our house, so as to have a place of refuge in case it should return, and it was well we did so, for having slung our hammocks as usual between the trees, we were aroused about midnight by a loud peal of thunder which broke right over our heads, and as the rain fell heavily we were obliged to take refuge in our house of hides. I thought there was something more awful in this storm than in any I had ever experienced, but this feeling was perhaps augmented by the solitude in which we found ourselves. It may be asked why I did not take a tent with me? I might have done so, but in travelling, I made it a rule to conform to the habits of the country, and in the north of Brazil no one ever thinks of carrying a tent. Long journeys are always avoided in the rainy season, and as the dry season generally lasts more than seven months, that period is always selected for this purpose. These thunder storms are invariably the precursors to the setting in of the heavy continual rains, but we hoped before that time to reach some town in the north of the province of Goyaz, where we might halt till the proper season for travelling would again come round.