84 Travels and Adventures 



The low bushes trailing in the water of the stream 

 are literally white with small cranes, wistfully waiting 

 for some careless fish, while the tall trees are bristling 

 with large cranes of various classes. The osprey, or 

 fishing eagle, and kingfishers complete the collection. 

 I would gladly have secured a photograph of so inter- 

 esting a sight, but as the little steamboat arrived oppo- 

 site to them they invariably rose like a cloud, and, 

 after wheeling around in the air several times, alighted 

 a few yards off to wait until the disturbance was 

 passed. The streams above-mentioned run into the 

 Lebrija at intervals, and, as we passed each one, all 

 on board seemed carried away with a desire to possess 

 some specimen of these myriads of beautiful water- 

 fowl. Many large trunks of trees torn from the banks 

 and brought down the river by floods made the navi- 

 gation very difficult, as we experienced when, about 

 mid-day, our little boat ran foul of an enormous log, 

 and it was only after two hours' work with axes and 

 bars that we were at liberty to proceed. Besides this, 

 there is the delay occasioned by taking on wood for 

 the engines. 



However, eventually we arrived at Estacion San- 

 tander — something like sixty miles in about ten hours. 

 The appearance of the village is not very prepossess- 

 ing, the houses beine of the most miserable construe- 

 tion, made of stems of the wild cane bound together 



