JACAMARS, PARROTS, AND TROGONS. 37 



from those along the rivers beyond, and narrow trails 

 only communicated, if indeed there were any connec- 

 tion whatever. 



It was most natural that I should desire to explore 

 the bed of my river. Where it met the sea, near my 

 door, a little cove was formed, sheltered and still, 

 where I might have floated a canoe, if I had owned 

 one. Opposite Bamboo Bank, as I called my dwell- 

 ing-place, it was noisy and restless, though shallower 

 than at the cove, and here flowed over smooth stones 

 and around large rocks, which served me as stepping- 

 stones. 



Above and during its course through the savanna 

 there was more sand at the bottom than stones, and 

 there it was shaded by grugru palms and clumps of 

 vines, but as it emerged from the forest growth an 

 arch of bananas and wild plantains met above its rip- 

 pling waters. 



I had, in a desultory way, made the acquaintance 

 of the inhabitants of the lower basin, such as crayfish, 

 water scorpions, and mullets, and had caught many of 

 the crayfish, which I boiled and served up at my table 

 in delicious salad. But one bright morning, soon after 

 the sun had begun his daily rounds, I entered the 

 stream beneath the banana arch, determined to follow 

 it to its source in the deep wood. 



Birds of every sort were flying across the little 

 valley through which ran my stream, and they all 

 seemed ready to burst with melody. I halted near 

 the bananas only long enough to see if there were 

 any ripening bunches of fruit, and noted one large 



