UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS 135 



simply high, rather flexible boots with the soles off; their 

 spurs were on their tough bare feet. There was every 

 gradation between and among the nearly pure whites, ne- 

 groes, and Indians. On the whole, there was most white 

 blood in the upper ranks, and most Indian and negro blood 

 among the camaradas; but there were exceptions in both 

 classes, and there was no discrimination on account of color. 

 All alike were courteous and friendly. 



The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, 

 and then let loose on the banks. We went up-stream for 

 a couple of hours against the swift current, the paddlers 

 making good headway with their pointed paddles — the 

 broad blade of each paddle was tipped with a long point, 

 so that it could be thrust into the mud to keep the low 

 dugout against the bank. The tropical forest came down 

 almost like a wall, the tall trees laced together with vines, 

 and the spaces between their trunks filled with a low, dense 

 jungle. In most places it could only be penetrated by a 

 man with a machete. With few exceptions the trees were 

 unknown to me, and their native names told me nothing. 

 On most of them the foliage was thick; among the excep- 

 tions were the cecropias, growing by preference on new- 

 formed alluvial soil bare of other trees, whose rather scanty 

 leaf bunches were, as I was informed, the favorite food 

 of sloths. We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, 

 and a family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in 

 the river, and no water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. 

 But as we pushed along near the shore, where the branches 

 overhung and dipped in the swirling water, we continu- 

 ally roused little flocks of bats. They were hanging from 

 the boughs right over the river, and when our approach 



