284 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



were never out of hearing of the hammering of Woodpeckers, 

 or the cooing of Doves or the laughing, descending scales of 

 Woodhewers. The Chinese music of the cicadas came 

 to our ears, a sound which recalled vividly the forests of 

 Venezuela. 



The water was now at a medium level, but after heavy 

 rains when it is high, all the great tacubas six feet above our 

 heads are submerged and much of the land along the river 

 banks becomes a swamp. 



Farther upstream when the water became very shallow 

 and the stream narrowed to twelve or fifteen feet, some of us 

 left the ballyhoo in order to make the work of the blacks 

 easier, and took to the trail. After a fifteen minutes' walk 

 we saw the glimmer of sunshine through the trees and knew 

 that we had reached the gold mine of the Little Aremu. 



