THE CONVICT TRAIL 185 



penetrated our moccasins and ants dropped 

 down our necks and bit and stung simultane- 

 ously with opposite ends of their anatomy. Five 

 minutes' chopping and hacking was all that the 

 leader could stand, who would then give way to 

 another. Fifty yards of a narrow lane repre- 

 sented our combined efforts the first day. 



Direction was a constant source of trouble. 

 Every three or four feet we had to consult a 

 compass, so confusing was the tangle. Sudden 

 gullies blocked us, a barren, half -open, sandy 

 slope cheered us for a few yards. It was na- 

 ture's defense and excelled any barbed-wire en- 

 tanglement I have ever seen at the battle-front. 



Once I came to a steep concealed gully. The 

 razor-grass had been particularly bad, giving 

 like elastic to blows of the cutlass and then fly- 

 ing back across my face. I was adrip with per- 

 spiration, panting in the heat when I slid part 

 way down the bank, and chopping away a solid 

 mass of huge elephant's ears, uncovered a tree- 

 trunk bridging the swamp. It brought to mind 

 the bridge from Bad to Worse in the terrible 

 Dubious Land. Strange insects fled from the 

 great leaves, lizards whisked past me, humming- 

 birds whirred close to my face — the very sound 



