92 A Day in a Laguna 
bottom, and can, as a rule, be traversed with all reasonable security. 
Between the months of April and June they are densely overgrown 
with enormously strong and tall bulrush (Scz7fus lacustris) (not 
the great reed-mace [Z7ypha Jatifolia|, by the way, which is 
popularly thus styled), which make all movement through them 
a continuous struggle. I have taken various enthusiastic birds- 
nesters to such places, among them my indefatigable comrade, 
Admiral Arthur Farquhar, and have seen one and all of them 
eventually reduced to a condition of complete exhaustion, Should 
a fresh breeze be blowing, the big reeds get a “lie” which 
makes it almost impossible to force one’s way through them 
“against the grain” so to speak, and the explorer is compelled 
to alter his course and be content to drift with the line of least 
resistance through the bigger patches until, upon emerging on open 
water he can work his way up to windward and thus to some extent 
recover his lost direction. Wandering thus, perhaps up to your waist 
in water and with the feathery rushes waving high above your 
head, it is often difficult to keep your bearings. In theory, the 
direction of the wind and position of the sun should be sufficient 
guides, but in practice it often happens that it is no easy matter 
to work your way out of the sea of reeds and rushes which encircle 
you. After one or two such experiences, including being caught in 
a heavy rainstorm which for a time made observations impossible 
and obliterated all landmarks, I took care to put a compass in my 
pocket before diving into the reeds. 
Such localities ever abound with leeches and nobody who does 
not require extensive blood-letting should enter them without taking 
precautions as to his dress. Stockinged legs are of course about the 
worst thing possible. But besides the leeches there is a mysterious 
and to me unknown water-beast—I call it such for want of a more 
definite name, but whether it be reptile or insect I cannot say— 
which inflicts a most serious bite or sting. The immediate effect 
