136 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



roused them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a 

 few rods, and then again dove in among the branches. 



At last we landed at a point of ground where there 

 was little jungle, and where the forest was composed of 

 palms and was fairly open. It was a lovely bit of forest. 

 The colonel strolled off in one direction, returning an hour 

 later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile Fiala 

 and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus-swamp. 

 Many trails led through the woods, and especially along 

 the borders of the swamp; and, although their principal 

 makers had evidently been cattle, yet there were in them 

 footprints of both tapir and deer. The tapir makes a foot- 

 print much like that of a small rhinoceros, being one of 

 the odd-toed ungulates. We could hear the dogs now and 

 then, evidently scattered and running on various trails. 

 They were a worthless lot of cur-hounds. They would 

 chase tapir or deer or anything else that ran away from 

 them as long as the trail was easy to follow; but they 

 were not stanch, even after animals that fled, and they 

 would have nothing whatever to do with animals that 

 were formidable. 



While standing by the marsh we heard something com- 

 ing along one of the game paths. In a moment a buck 

 of the bigger species of bush deer appeared, a very pretty 

 and graceful creature. It stopped and darted back as soon 

 as it saw us, giving us no chance for a shot; but in another 

 moment we caught glimpses of it running by at full speed, 

 back among the palms. I covered an opening between 

 two tree-trunks. By good luck the buck appeared in the 

 right place, giving me just time to hold well ahead of him 

 and fire. At the report he went down in a heap, the 



