1 82 Travels and Adventures 



Magdalena. The river Santo Domingo, after rushing 

 down from the mountain-side in the form of a noisy 

 rivulet, suddenly gathers great force as it reaches the 

 level land, and then, with the help of two small tribu- 

 taries it receives, forms the only supply of four large 

 lakes. It was near the borders of one of these lakes 

 I took up my abode with a family of natives for a 

 short time, with a view to exploring the forest on each 

 side of the higher waters of the river, arid also with 

 the object of securing some specimens of the curious 

 water-fowl, etc., to be found around the edofes of the 

 lake. 



The plains forming this side of the Magdalena are 

 something like one hundred miles wide from the river 

 to the foot of the chain of mountains. These plains 

 are called by the natives La Savannas de San Luis. 

 The land is very flat, mostly thick forest, sometimes 

 intersected with swamp, in other parts with immense 

 prairies, where the rank grass gives shelter to large 

 herds of peccaries as well as to the tapir, jaguar, and 

 puma. These plains are very scantily inhabited, the 

 scattered natives living at a oreat distance from each 

 other. Sometimes a family will have a ten-mile range 

 of savanna for the few cattle they possess. The 

 settlement where I lived was made up of three 

 families, and in a southerly direction our nearest 

 neighbours were at least seventy miles distant. The 



