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 t 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 



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