188 JUNGLE PEACE 



stretched a white sheet to guide the oncoming 

 trail cutters. 



Day after day the score of convicts returned 

 with their guards and at last we saw the path 

 unite with an old game and Indian trail in the 

 cool shade of the jungle, and Kalacoon was in 

 direct contact with the great tropical forest it- 

 self. I have passed lightly over the really 

 frightful pain and exhaustion which we experi- 

 enced in the initial part of this work, and which 

 emphasized the tremendous difference between 

 the age-old jungle untouched by man, and the 

 terrible tangle which springs after he has de- 

 stroyed the primeval vegetation. 



After this came our reward, and never a 

 day passed but the trail yielded many wonder- 

 ful facts. The creatures of the wilderness soon 

 found this wide swath, and used it by day and 

 night, making it an exciting thing for us to peer 

 around a corner, to see what strange beings 

 were sitting or feeding in our little street. 



Before the trail was quite completed, it 

 yielded one of the most exciting hunts of our 

 trip — the noosing of a giant bushmaster — the 

 most deadly serpent of the tropics. Nupee — 

 my Akawai Indian hunter, two nestling trogons 



