38 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



several crosses together, and in one place I counted seven- 

 teen standing side by side. 



Late in the afternoon we reached a lone hut in a small 

 clearing the hastily erected shelter of a group of peons. 

 The men invited us to stop, and as the locality looked in- 

 teresting we accepted the invitation; but we erected our 

 tent and lived in it in preference to the hut. 



All the surrounding country was covered with virgin 

 forest. It had never been trodden by man, at least not 

 within many years; there were no side trails of any kind, so 

 that it was impossible to penetrate very far. 



Among our first mammals were a doe and fawn of a lit- 

 tle forest-deer (Mazama setta). They are commonly known 

 as brockets or spike-bucks, as each horn consists of a single 

 prong. I believe that these deer are not so rare as gener- 

 ally supposed, but they are seldom collected on account of 

 the difficulty of hunting them in the thick jungle. The 

 peons shot the ones we secured. They had discovered a 

 path leading to a small stream, and concealing themselves 

 on the opposite side, waited until the animals came down 

 to drink; then they shot them. The men also brought in 

 a huge bushmaster that they unearthed while clearing 

 away underbrush. The deadly reptile is known as eguis 

 to the natives on account of the black X-shaped marks on 

 its back. 



The mountainsides were scarred with deep fissures and 

 ravines filled with the darkest and most impenetrable of 

 forests. It was possible to look across from one side to 

 the other, but crossing them was impracticable. Each 

 morning I could see a flock of some thirty-odd swallow- 

 tailed kites soaring just above the trees on the far side of 

 one of the ravines. The magnificent birds resembled huge 

 white-bellied swallows, or swifts, as they circled majesti- 

 cally over the dark forest; they uttered shrill screams all 

 the while. Apparently they fed on the wing, and speci- 

 mens collected by us later had eaten quantities of large 

 beetles and flying ants. At about nine o'clock the band 



