42 WANDERINGS IN 



FIRST From hence you proceed, in a south-west direc- 



JOURNEY. 



tion, through a long swampy savanna. Some of 



the hills which border on it, have nothing but a 

 thin coarse grass and huge stories on them ; others 

 quite wooded ; others with their summits crowned, 

 and their base quite bare ; and others again with 

 their summits bare, and their base in thickest 

 wood. 



Half of this day's march is in water, nearly up 

 to the knees. There are four creeks to pass : one 

 of them has a fallen tree across it. You must 

 make your own bridge across the other three. 

 Probably, were the truth known, these apparently 

 four creeks are only the meanders of one. 



The Jabim. The Jabiru, the largest bird in Guiana, feeds in 

 the marshy savanna through which you have just 

 passed. He is wary and shy, and will not allow 

 you to get within gunshot of him. 



You sleep this night in the forest, and reach an 

 Indian settlement about three o'clock the next 

 .evening, after walking one third of the way 

 through wet and miry ground. 



But bad as the walking is through it, it is 

 easier than where you cross over the bare hills, 

 where you have to tread on sharp stones, most of 

 them lying edgewise. 



The ground gone over these two last days, 

 seems condemned to perpetual solitude and si- 

 lence. There was not one four-footed animal to 

 be seen, nor even the marks of one. It would 



