68 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



cruel and voracious reptile. They cut long sticks, 

 and examined closely the side of the creek for half 

 a mile above and below the place where it was to 

 be crossed ; and as soon as the boldest had swum 

 over, he did the same on the other side, and then 

 all followed. 



After passing the night on the opposite bank, 

 which is well wooded, it is a brisk walk of nine 

 hours before you reach four Indian huts, on a 

 rising ground a few hundred paces from a little 

 brook, whose banks are covered over with Cou- 

 courite and ^ta-trees. 



This is the place you ought to have come to two 

 days ago had the water permitted you. In cross- 

 ing the plain at the most advantageous place you 

 are above ankle-deep in water for three hours; 

 the remainder of the way is dry, the ground gently 

 rising. As the lower parts of this spacious plain 

 put on somewhat the appearance of a lake during 

 the periodicals rains, it is not improbable but that 

 this is the place which hath given rise to the sup- 

 posed existence of the famed Lake Parima, or 

 El Dorado ; but this is mere conjecture. 



A few Deer are feeding on the coarse rough 

 grass of this far-extending plain ; they keep at a 

 distance from you, and are continually on the 

 look-out. 



The Spur-winged Plover, and a species of the 

 Curlew, black, with a white bar across the wings, 

 nearly as large again as the scarlet curlew on the 

 sea-coast, frequently rise before you. Here, too, 

 the Moscovy Duck is numerous ; and large flocks 

 of two other kinds wheel round you as you pass 

 on, but keep out of gun-shot. The milk-white 



