152 JUNGLE ISLAND 



needed was a wide passage cleared of underbrush, 

 with all the dry leaves removed. Fortunately 

 Necto liked this kind of work. It seemed to him 

 much less silly than running around looking for 

 useless animals. Under his direction and mainly 

 by his work, a fine trail twelve feet wide, three 

 times as broad as the old Spanish paved roads, 

 was hacked out for half a mile, across two ravines 

 and over the slopes between. 



The work was done with only two tools. One 

 was the long machete, which I think he must 

 have picked up as soon as he put on his scanty 

 clothes in the morning, so constantly did he 

 carry it. With this knife he cut down bushes 

 and hacked away roots. The other tool was a 

 forked stick he cut with the machete, to help 

 rake awav leaves. 



Down this cleared passageway through the 

 forest I could walk quietly without watching my 

 step, with eyes intent on animal life (Fig. 65). 

 Even at night I could follow the trail noiselessly. 

 The trail had another advantage. It was not 

 wide enough to open the jungle floor to the sun, 

 but it did present a cleared space that animals 

 were some time in crossing. For at least a 

 moment I could see them in the open, and some- 

 times they followed the trail a little way as if it 

 were their road, too. Lizards hopped along it, 

 and sometimes I saw a great blue butterfly float- 

 ing up over the slope. If I were going again into 



