252 A NATURALIST IN THE GUIANAS 



scanned the banks as we went along for any articles 

 arrested by the branches or roots of the trees. We 

 recovered a box and a bag. The box was one of those 

 which had contained bird-skins, but as it had not been 

 nailed up it was quite empty. The bag had cotton- wool 

 with a few Winchester cartridges packed in it. We passed 

 several birdskins floating down the stream, but it would 

 have been waste of time to have picked them up. It 

 rained heavily most of the time, the gloom of the morn- 

 ing adding to our depression. I landed in the rain and 

 managed to kill a curassow, the only one we heard for 

 the day. At midday we stopped on an open stretch of 

 rubble and cooked the curassow I had killed. The men 

 straggled in from the forest about an hour after our 

 arrival. After we had eaten we continued our journey. 

 I realised with dismay that our companions in the forest 

 could barely keep up with the drifting boat. At meal- 

 time they had described the difficulties of their march 

 through the dense undergrowth clothing the banks of the 

 river, rendered more difficult and fatiguing by the uneven 

 nature of the ground. If on this first day of our journey, 

 when the men were fresh we could cover but a short 

 distance, how could we hope to reach La Prision ! 



When we were quite close to the mouth of the Arawa 

 I shot a large capybara, which Maite prepared, whik; 

 Jacobson and I went up to the rancho built on the up 

 trip to await the arrival of the rest of our party. It was 

 getting dark when we heard shouts in the distance. I 

 despatched the small boat, which returned after some 

 time with a part of the men, including Mateo Kamirez, 

 who was lying down supported by one of them. The 

 men lifted him out and placed him on a blanket on the 

 ground, where he lay groaning and trembling. He had 



