254 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



ing ants. At dusk several hundred Smooth-billed Anis 80 

 dropped into a clump of bamboo and with much racket and 

 squabbling settled for the night. 



This region is wholly undisturbed, the few " pork-knockers " 

 and Indians who pass keeping entirely to the river. Mr. 

 Nicholson told us that Capybaras (Hydrochoerus capybara) 



FIG. 107. CUYUNI RIVER. 



came every night and raided the vegetable garden, and we had 

 good evidence of this. Pushing through the bush a short 

 distance downstream at dusk, we saw a small herd of these 

 creatures appear and distribute themselves over the banks. 

 Some waded along the shallows, or swam out and dived, to 

 come up with a mouthful of algae. Others climbed the clay 

 slope and disappeared into the jungle. They seemed like 



