114 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



him, but no farther; and two of the camaradas could just 

 about keep up with him. For an hour we went through 

 thick jungle, where the machetes were constantly at work. 

 Then the trail struck off straight across the marshes, for 

 jaguars swim and wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was 

 a hard walk. The sun was out. We were drenched with 

 sweat. We were torn by the spines of the innumerable 

 clusters of small palms with thorns like needles. We were 

 bitten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, 

 which we scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, 

 exactly as all dread of the latter vanished when we were 

 menaced by the big red wasps, of which a dozen stings 

 will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad health will 

 seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were contin- 

 ually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our hips. 

 Twice we came to long bayous so deep that we had to 

 swim them, holding our rifles above water in our right 

 hands. The floating masses of marsh grass, and the 

 slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work as we 

 swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and holding 

 our rifles aloft. One result of the swim, by the way, was 

 that my watch, a veteran of Cuba and Africa, came to an 

 indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered by the weight 

 of our drenched clothes while our soggy boots squelched 

 as we walked. There was no breeze. In the undimmed 

 sky the sun stood almost overhead. The heat beat on us 

 in waves. By noon I could only go forward at a slow walk, 

 and two of the party were worse off than I was. Kermit, 

 with the dogs and two camaradas close behind him, disap- 

 peared across the marshes at a trot. At last, when he was 

 out of sight, and it was obviously useless to follow him, 



