254 



TiMEHRI. 



hanging the \Tater, on which grew a number of orchids, 

 including Stanhopea eburnea. Even here however the 

 cutlass had to be freely used and in the end the pi6lure 

 was disfigured by a leaning trunk in the foreground 

 quite out of focus. We had our doubts of these piflures 

 as may be supposed, and, rather disappointed, resolved 

 to delay no longer but push on to our camping ground. 



By the time we reached it sunset was near, and as the 

 ereftion of the tent and hanging of the hammocks took 

 a little time, the Camera was set aside until morning. 



Our camp was in a little clearing on a sand-reef, 

 a place probably occupied centuries ago as an Indian 

 village. We remembered it years before as the site of a 

 benab occupied by a boviander, who had an Indian wife ; 

 now it was quite deserted. The old shed was hardly 

 weather-proof, but we put our canvas over it and although 

 not without misgivings of jiggers (confirmed afterwards 

 by finding two of these troublesome pests in our toes), 

 we settled down for the night after a good meal and cup 

 of coffee. 



V\'e are always restless the first night in a strange 

 bed, and more so in a hammock in the midst of the 

 forest. The surroundings are so strange and the differ- 

 ence between the flexibility of the net as compared with 

 a hard hair mattress all tend to prevent sleep. Fortu- 

 nately we had candles and one of them fastened to a 

 stick thrust into the sand enabled us to read until our 

 usual bedtime. 



How long this first night seemed ! In town we can 

 move about in the evening and we hardly feel that night 

 has properly come until about eleven or twelve o'clock, 

 when the streets become deserted. Here in the forest 



