jo Travels and Adventures 



able dimensions stopped our way, for the time offering- 

 great obstructions, not so much for ourselves, who could 

 easily cross by swimming, but how to pass our packs 

 with any sort of security offered no small difficulty. 

 Finally, finding a large tree fallen half-way across the 

 stream, by dint of one helping another we were able to 

 pass, and so continued our journey. At noon, as on 

 the previous day, we stopped to cook our mid-day meal 

 and to rest a short time, for although, on -account of 

 the thick forest, the sun did not strike upon us much, 

 still the heat in the middle of the day was extremely 

 oppressive. Besides, the fatigue occasioned by cutting 

 our way through the thick clumps of prickly acacias 

 made us glad to seek a little repose. Continuing 

 our way, after some refreshment, the track, as on 

 the previous day, lay through the same extrava- 

 gance of vegetable and animal life. A thousand 

 delicate creepers hung in graceful festoons, and woven 

 into a tapestry compared with which a Gobelin 

 picture would make a poor contrast. After a tire- 

 some march, at the end of the second day we arrived 

 at the only hut which is to be found in all the journey 

 through this part of the forest — and, considering that 

 the nearest neighbours are on every side at least 

 thirty miles distant, the inhabitants of this forest 

 prison, as might be supposed, had partaken consider- 

 ably of the nature of their surroundings — a hut of 



