18 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



bananas, fresh cassava bread, and boiled turtle-eggs. Off 

 these we made a hasty meal, and then continued our 

 journey. We had got beyond the district where the sarra- 

 pieros conduct their operations. Within the memory of 

 the people at La Prision no one had ever gone farther 

 than the sarrapial of Esperanza, and there were no tracks 

 beyond the spot except the newly opened trail made by 

 our Indians. The masterly manner in which the cutting 

 of this trail had been performed was really astonishing. In 

 the thickness of the forest, where it was impossible to see 

 anything fifty yards ahead, these men, without a compass 

 or any other instruments, had succeeded in opening a 

 road to the foot of the mountain, of which even a trained 

 surveyor might have been proud. No deviation from an 

 almost straight line marred the accuracy of their work. 

 It was evident, from the quantity of game we came 

 across, that we had got beyond the haunts of the people 

 on the Caura. Although we were far from being a silent 

 lot, and the men, in getting through the narrow path 

 with their packs, made a good deal of noise, yet we 

 surprised a number of the larger game-birds which are 

 so difficult of approach near the settlements. These birds, 

 so wild in the vicinity of La Prision, never having been 

 disturbed in this locality, are quite stupid. I could have 

 shot several curassows had we not been in a hurry to get 

 to a good camping-place before nightfall. 



It was near sunset when we stopped for the night. 

 While Maite and my boy Guy were preparing dinner, 

 Isidor and Sylvestre constructed a rancJio. Poles were 

 lashed to four trees in the form of a square at a height of 

 about eight feet. Upon these poles others were placed as 

 rafters. A thick covering of palm-branches formed the 

 roof. Either palm-branches or the long broad leaves of 



