326 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



gales, and never beard from afterward. Just as we 

 were starting on once more, onr chief guide interrupted 

 our chat and hiughter by laying bis finger on his lips, 

 and pointing toward a tall eucalyptus near which we 

 had been lunching. 



"What is it, Nagarnook?" queried our host. 



The guide moved silently round the tree, his hands 

 clasped negligently behind his back, scrutinizing with 

 his bead-like eyes every point of its polished bark. After 

 a moment or two of this examination, he stopped and 

 uttered one word : " Opossum ! " 



'' How, in the name of all that 's good, does he know ? " 

 laughed I. 



A smile of conscious pride passed over the face of the 

 native, who understood my tone of surprise, as with his 

 finger he pointed out to nie a line of tiny scratches, 

 hardly visible, in the smooth bark of the giant tree. 



" Yes, but they may be old marks. What makes you 

 believe them recent ? " 



" The white chief is pleased to jest with his slave." 



" No, seriously ; T see that they are opossum marks, but 

 the trees are full of just such tracks all around us." 



'■' Let the white chief look more closely ; " and he 

 showed me in the marks lowest down on the trunk, 

 grains of sand, damp still, and evidently recently left 

 behind a climbing 'possum. Blowing hard upon these 

 the sand still clung to the moistened track. He looked 

 up, proud of his proof. 



