PREFACE 



I have frequently wondered how many of the large 

 number of people who visit natural-history museums have 

 any conception of the appearance and actions, in their 

 wilderness homes, of the creatures they see, and of the 

 experiences of the field-naturalists who visit the little-known 

 places of the earth in search of them. 



My experience as a field-naturalist consists of nearly six 

 years of almost continuous exploration in South America, 

 and embraces practically all of the republics of that con- 

 tinent. 



The purpose of this narrative is to follow the course of 

 these explorations into the tropical jungles of the Amazon, 

 Paraguay, Orinoco, and others of South America's master 

 rivers, and to the frigid heights of the snow-crowned Andes. 

 ( In these jungles one hears the hoarse cough of the jaguar 

 and the scream of long-tailed, multicolored macaws as they 

 fly two by two overhead ; the extraordinary chorus of frogs 

 and insects may lull the weary senses to sleep at night- 

 fall, but the dismal roar of howling monkeys is sure to 

 awaken one at dawn. To start at the sudden, long-drawn 

 hiss of a boa or the lightning-like thrust of the terrible bush- 

 master, the largest of poisonous snakes, and a creature so 

 deadly that a man may die within ten minutes after the 

 fatal stroke, and to shudder as the wild, insane cackle of the 

 wood-rails shatters the brooding silence of the forest, are 

 merely incidents of the explorer's every-day life; and so, 

 too, are visits to deep lagoons teeming with crocodiles, can- 

 nibal fishes, and myriads of water-fowl; lengthy sojourns in 

 gloomy forests where orchids droop from moss-draped 

 branches, brilliant butterflies shimmer in the subdued light, 

 and curious animals live in the eternal shadows/ and ascents 



VII 



