WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 233 



We now baited a shark-hook with a large fish, 

 and put it upon a board about a yard long, and 

 one foot broad, whicli we had brought on purpose. 

 This board was carried out in the canoe, about 

 forty yards into the river. By means of a string, 

 long enough to reach the bottom of the river, and 

 at the end of which string was fastened a stone, 

 the board was kept, as it were, at anchor. One 

 end of the new rope I had bought in town was 

 reeved through the chain of the shark-hook, and 

 the other end fastened to a tree on the sand-bank. 



It was now an hour after sunset. The sky was 

 cloudless, and the moon shone beautifully bright. 

 There was not a breath of wind in the heavens, 

 and the river seemed like a large plain of quick- 

 silver. Every now and then a huge fish would 

 strike and plunge in the water ; then the owls and 

 goatsuckers would continue their lamentations, 

 and the sound of these was lost in the prowling 

 tiger's growl. Then all was still again, and silent 

 as midnight. 



The caymen were now upon the stir, and at 

 intervals their noise could be distinguished amid 

 that of the jaguar, the owls, the goatsuckers, and 

 frogs. It was a singular and awful sound. It 

 was like a suppressed sigh, bursting forth all of 

 a sudden, and so loud that you might hear it 

 above a mile off. First one emitted this horrible 

 noise, and then another answered him; and on 

 looking at the countenances of the people around 

 me, I could plainly see that they expected to have 

 a cayman that night. 



We were at supper, when the Indian, who 

 seemed to have had one eye on the turtle-pot and 



