262 TIMEHRI. 
having picked suitable sticks from the sodden ground, — 4s 
scrape off the damp outside wood and make a fire of 
the dry pith. Then, still under shelter of the exiguous — 
tarpaulin, one manages to warm some such blessing for 
travellers as atin of soup, and to change your wetclothes— _ 
by the way, it is an art in itself to learn to dress and un- 
dress without putting foot out of hammock—andthenone __ 
tumbles back into the hammock, and, having lighted a pipe, 
falls at the same instant into a more perfe& state of 
physical comfort and mental rest than anyone who ~ 
has not had some such equivalent experience can imagine, a 
Just as the bitter discomfort of a day’s exposure to 
tropical rainfall heavy enough to wash out from one 
all hope of relief is thus a small price to pay for 
entrance into the realm of intense physical bliss which a 
scrap of tarpaulin may separate from the limitless deso- 
lateness of those nights throughout which the flood of 
tropical rain continues to thunder on the roof of the 
primeval forest, so now the purgatory of flies, and 
bruises and saturating discomfort left behind, as we 
continued our walk over the savannah, under a bright 
sun, the real heat of which, welcome to dry us and ours, 
was tempered by a strong breeze, Redskins and white 
man alike carelessly experienced the philosphicaltruth, that 
pleasure is but the cessation of pain. As our sufferings 
had been acute so now our spirits were proportionately 
high ; and, we gladly raced along a path which led through 
an appropriately beautiful country of narrow grass valleys, 
the floors of which were whitened by innumerable white 
lily-like flowers*, lying between high broken mountains. — 
No one of all the party had been in those parts before. 
* Hippeastrum Solandriflorum. 
