228 A SPORTING PARADISE 



our lunch. I amused myself with an exploring 

 trip. The travelling was very difficult ; probably 

 no one but an Indian had ever trodden the same 

 path. Trees were piled one over another. Some 

 had fallen crossways and remained permanently 

 arched ; others were in disordered heaps as though 

 tossed by a violent hurricane. It was under 

 these circumstances of clambering and avoiding 

 that I finally lost my way. Frequently when I 

 scrambled to the top of a fallen trunk, my weight 

 would cause the rotten bark to collapse, giving 

 me a choking bath of dust and decayed wood. 

 After a time I arrived at a swamp, but the 

 mosquitos made such an overwhelming attack, 

 that I was forced to beat a retreat. By the time 

 I reached the camp my body had been stung 

 in fifty places. Mac's fate had not been much 

 better, he had been bitten on the chin by a hornet, 

 and though my hands were like boxing-gloves, 

 it was more endurable than a double chin. 



"While we were at lunch, two Americans 

 arrived with a heavy take of frogs. The method 

 of procuring them is interesting. The dignified 

 bull- frog sits majestically upon a root or log, 

 in swamp or river water. The angler approaches 

 him with an ordinary fishing-rod, and naked 



