96 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



decorated with green boughs and rushes, and we drank 

 the health of the President of the United States and of 

 the President of Brazil. 



Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's 

 edge. This is a fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any 

 settler who is willing to work can earn his living. There are 

 mines; there is water-power; there is abundance of rich 

 soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. It offers 

 a fine field for immigration and for agricultural, mining, 

 and business development; and it has a great future. 



Cherrie and Miller had secured a little owl a month 

 before in the Chaco, and it was travelling with them in a 

 basket. It was a dear little bird, very tame and affection- 

 ate. It liked to be handled and petted; and when Miller, 

 its especial protector, came into the cabin, it would make 

 queer little noises as a signal that it wished to be taken 

 up and perched on his hand. Cherrie and Miller had 

 trapped many mammals. Among them was a tayra weasel, 

 whitish above and black below, as big and bloodthirsty as a 

 fisher-martin; and a tiny opossum no bigger than a mouse. 

 They had taken four species of opossum, but they had not 

 found the curious water-opossum which they had obtained 

 on the rivers flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opos- 

 sum, which is black and white, swims in the streams like 

 a muskrat or otter, catching fish and living in burrows 

 which open under water. Miller and Cherrie were puz- 

 zled to know why the young throve, leading such an exis- 

 tence of constant immersion; one of them once found a 

 female swimming and diving freely with four quite well- 

 grown young in her pouch. 



We saw on the banks screamers — big, crested waders of 



