66 Travels and Adventures 



CHAPTER VI. 



VEGETATION MONKEYS — OUR CAMP — CROSSING RIVERS 



A LONELY HUT — A DRIED-UP LAKE — A THUNDER- 

 STORM IN THE FOREST A VIEW TWO HUNDRED 



MILES LAS MERCEDES — A COFFEE PLANTATION 



MAKING RAW SUGAR. 



At first the path lay along the three miles of railway 

 which had been constructed and abandoned several 

 years before. This had now become entirely filled up 

 with creepers and tall grass. Leaving the last rail 

 behind, we quickly plunged into the thick forest, where 

 the road became a mere trail, which made it extremely 

 difficult to proceed. First we were sci-ambling over 

 some fallen trunks, then cutting our way through a 

 thicket of prickly acacias ; sometimes wading up to 

 the knees in ditches caused by the heavy rains ; at 

 other times swinging ourselves, monkey-like, from one 

 branch of a tree to another, in order to cross the turbu- 

 lent, swift-running rivers without wetting our ammuni- 

 tion and provisions. But, even with these difficulties, 

 the path all the while lay through the midst of a 





