124 BIG GAME FIELDS 



even the cry of the toucan broke the almost death- 

 like stillness no vagrant breeze stirred a ripple 

 on the glassy waters of the river that wound its 

 way from the hills down into the stretch of low 

 jungle lands, and disappeared in rich dark ver- 

 dure. From the dark, noiseless waters stretched 

 the forests, vast, gloomy and impenetrable. The 

 limpid waters winding ceaselessly through the 

 gnarled and rank vegetation of the jungle finally 

 emerged into a boundless lagoon, its oily waters 

 spreading out into a million different bayous, 

 streams and ponds. Pond after pond, island 

 after island, for miles stretched the bewildering 

 waterway, and as night unfolded her curtains of 

 somber hue, it became replete with the uncanny 

 mystery that seems to lurk in the recesses of a 

 great swamp. The rank swale grass, shoulder 

 high, was fringed here and there with great 

 gaunt trees that were silhouetted against a won- 

 derful star-bespeckled tropical sky, whilst a 

 creeping life moved unseen among the trees and 

 roots. 



Such is the scene, impressing the mind with a 

 sense of awful magnitude and wonderment, a 

 fitting background for forest dramas, for herein 

 lay the haunts of the lord of the South Ameri- 



