140 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



We saw one or two squirrels among the trees, and a 

 family of monkeys. There were few sand-banks in the 

 river, and no water-fowl save an occasional cormorant. 

 But as we pushed along near the shore, where the 

 branches overhung and dipped in the swirling water, we 

 continually roused little flocks of bats. ■ They were hang- 

 ing from the boughs right over the river, and when our 

 approach roused them they zigzagged rapidly in front of 

 us for a few rods, and then again dove in among the 

 branches. 



At last we landed at a point of ground where there' 

 was little jungle, and where the forest was composed of 

 palms and was fairly open. It was a lovely bit of forest. 

 The colonel strolled off in one direction, returning an 

 hour later with a squirrel for the naturalists. Meanwhile 

 Fiala and I went through the palm wood to a papyrus- 

 swamp. Many trails led through the woods, and espe- 

 cially along the borders of the swamp; and, although 

 their principal makers had evidently been cattle, yet there 

 were in them footprints of both tapir and deer. The 

 tapir makes a footprint much like that of a small rhi- 

 nocerous, being one of the odd-toed ungulates. We 

 could hear the dogs now and then, evidently scattered 

 and running on various trails. They were a worthless 

 lot of cur-hounds. They would chase tapir or deer or 

 anything else that ran away from them as long as the 

 trail was easy to follow ; but they were not stanch, even 

 after animals that fled, and they would have nothing 

 whatever to do with animals that were formidable. 



While standing by the marsh we heard something 

 coming along one of the game paths. In a moment a 



