RorH] TRAVEL, OVERLAND 607 
neighborhood, but was unable to find them (IT, 391). I understand 
that he met with them at Mount Weitipu. In the Amazon region, 
on the sierras of Montealegre, Wallace passed by a high cliff on 
which were some of the picture writings he had so much wished to 
see. They were executed in a red tint, produced apparently by rub- 
bing them in with pieces of the rock, which in places is of that color. 
They looked quite fresh and were not at all obliterated by the 
weather, although no one knows their antiquity. They consisted of 
various figures, rudely executed, some representing animals, as the 
alligator and birds, others like some household utensils, and others 
again circles and mathematical figures, while there were some very 
complicated and fantastic forms. All were scattered irregularly 
over the rock to the height of 8 or 10 feet. The size of most of the 
figures was from 1 to 2 feet (ARW, 104). 
783. But should the track by any chance fail them, or the route 
traverse country new to them, sun, stars, and, it is alleged, even trees 
may assist in directing the Indians toward the situation of their 
proposed goal. It is by the position of the Pleiades that the Aka- 
wai, when traveling by night, are guided in their land journeys 
over the stony plains of the interior (HiC, 248). As for trees, 
St. Clair is responsible for the statement that should folk happen 
to lose the direction in which they are going, by looking at the north 
side of the large trees they are shown which way to steer; as on that 
side their trunks are always covered with a short moss (StC, 1, 35). 
In Cayenne, Barrére says that trees act the part of a compass; their 
tips lean more to the south (PBA, 180). 
784. The most valuable qualities of the Indians are their agility, 
dexterity, and the intuitive tact of tracking, or discovering footsteps 
in the bush (HiC, 231). Their acuteness in discovering the trail of 
an animal and its species is also surprising (StC, u, 35). They not 
only hear sounds in the woods which are imperceptible to others, 
but judge with surprising accuracy of the distance and direction 
from whence they proceed (Punk, 1, 374). Bates reports having no- 
ticed in Indian boys a sense of locality almost as keen as that pos- 
sessed by a sand wasp. He gives an example of his little companion, 
about 10 years of age, who had been playing all the way with bow 
and arrow while they had been hunting, and yet, almost uncon- 
sciously, had noted the course taken (HWB, 196). 
785. Teaving now out of account such an exceptional circumstance 
as an individual losing his way, a track once made, even by a single 
Indian, is easily recognized by the sharp-eyed natives. . . So exactly 
do they follow the narrow trail—always in single file—that often 
for miles the very footsteps of the explorer are trodden by his suc- 
cessor (BW, 194). This walking in single file is characteristic, the 
