ii8 Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



with him. For an hour we went through thick jungle, 

 where the machetes were constantly at work. Then the 

 trail struck off straight across the marshes, for jaguars 

 swim and wade as freely as marsh-deer. It was a hard 

 walk. The sun was out. We were drenched with sweat. 

 We were torn by the spines of the innumerable clusters 

 of small palms with thorns like needles. We were bit- 

 ten by the hosts of fire-ants, and by the mosquitoes, 

 which we scarcely noticed where the fire-ants were found, 

 exactly as all dread of the latter vanished when we were 

 menaced by the big red wasps, of which a dozen stings 

 will disable a man, and if he is weak or in bad health 

 will seriously menace his life. In the marsh we were 

 continually wading, now up to our knees, now up to our 

 hips. Twice we came to long bayous so deep that we 

 had to swim them, holding our rifles above water in our 

 right hands. The floating masses of marsh grass, and 

 the slimy stems of the water-plants, doubled our work 

 as we swam, cumbered by our clothing and boots and 

 holding our rifles aloft. One result of the swim, by the 

 way, was that my watch, a veteran of Cuba and Africa, 

 came to an indignant halt. Then on we went, hampered 

 by the weight of our drenched clothes while our soggy 

 boots squelched as we walked. There was no breeze. 

 In the undimmed sky the sun stood almost overhead. 

 The heat beat on us in waves. By noon I could only 

 go forward at a slow walk, and two of the party were 

 worse off than I was. Kermit, with the dogs and two 

 camaradas close behind him, disappeared across the 

 marshes at a trot. At last, when he was out of sight, 

 and it was obviously useless to follow him, the rest of us 



