184 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



proprietor sat; and there were half a dozen such sheets, 

 each extending between two trees. The webs could hard- 

 ly be seen; and- the effect was of scores of big, formidable- 

 looking spiders poised in midair, equidistant from one 

 another, between each pair of trees. When darkness and 

 rain fell they were' still out, fixing their webs, and pounc- 

 ing on the occasional insects that blundered into the webs, 

 I have no question that they are nocturnal ; they certainly 

 hide in the daytime, and it seems impossible that they 

 can come out only for a few minutes at dusk. 



In the evenings, after supper or dinner — it is hard to 

 tell by what title the exceedingly movable evening meal 

 should be called — the members of the party sometimes 

 told stories of incidents in their past lives. Most of them 

 were men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra told 

 of the hardship and suffering of the first trips through the 

 wilderness across which we were going with such com- 

 fort. On this very plateau they had once lived for weeks 

 on the fruits of the various fruit-bearing trees. Naturally 

 they became emaciated and feeble. In the forests of the 

 Amazonian basin they did better because they often shot 

 birds and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. 

 In cutting the trail for the telegraph-line through the 

 Juruena basin they lost every single one of the hundred 

 and sixty mules with which they had started. Those 

 men pay dear who build the first foundations of empire! 

 Fiala told of the long polar nights and of white bears that 

 came round the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to 

 eat them, and themselves destined to be eaten by them. 

 Of all the party Cherrie's experiences had covered the 

 widest range. This was partly owing to the fact that 



