Cii.vi'. V. BREAKFAST ON AN ISLAND. 199 



up liis trousers and shii-t-sleeves, took his long hunting- 

 knife, and leapt ashore with the dogs. He had to cut a 

 gap in order to enter the forest. We expected to find 

 Pacas and Cutias ; and the method adopted to secure 

 them was this : at the present early hour they would be 

 seen feeding on fallen fruits, but would quickly, on hear- 

 ino- a noise, betake themselves to their burrows : Raimundo 

 was then to turn them out by means of the dogs, and 

 Joaquim and I were to remain in the boat with our guns' 

 ready to shoot all that came to the edge of the stream, 

 the habit of both animals, when hard-pressed, being to 

 take to the water. We had not long to wait. The first 

 arrival was a Paca, a reddish, nearly tailless Rodent, 

 spotted with white on the sides, and intermediate in size 

 and appearance between a hog and a hare. My first shot 

 did not take effect ; the animal dived into the water and 

 did not re-appear. A second was brought down by my 

 companion as it was rambling about under the man- 

 grove bushes. A Cutia next appeared : this is also a 

 Rodent, about one-third the size of the Paca : it swims, 

 but does not dive, and I was fortunate enough to shoot 

 it. We obtained in this way two more Pacas and 

 another Cutia. All the time the dogs were yelping in 

 the forest. Shortly afterwards Raimundo made his ap- 

 pearance, and told us to paddle to the other side of the 

 island. Arrived there, we landed and prepared for 

 breakfast. It was a pretty spot ; a clean, white, sandy 

 beach beneath the shade of wide-spreading trees. 

 Joaquim made a fire. He first scraped fine shavings 

 from the midrib of a Bacaba palm-leaf ; these he piled 

 into a little heap in a dry place, and then struck a light 



