26o Through the BraziHan Wilderness 



quitoes and gnats get through head-nets and under mos- 

 quito-bars, and when the ointments occasionally renewed 

 may permit one to get sleep or rest which would otherwise 

 be impossible of attainment. The termites got into our 

 tent on the sand-flat, ate holes in Cherrie's mosquito-net 

 and poncho, and were starting to work at our duffel- 

 bags, when we discovered them. 



Packing" the loads across was simple. Dragging the 

 heavy dugouts was labor. The biggest of the two water- 

 logged ones was the heaviest. Lyra and Kermit did the 

 job. All the men were employed at it except the cook, 

 and one man who was down with fever. A road was 

 chopped through the forest and a couple of hundred stout 

 six-foot poles, or small logs, were cut as rollers and placed 

 about two yards apart. With block and tackle the seven 

 dugouts were hoisted out of the river up the steep banks, 

 and up the rise of ground until the level was reached. 

 Then the men harnessed themselves two by two on the 

 drag-rope, while one of their number pried behind with 

 a lever, and the canoe, bumping and sliding, was twitched 

 through the woods. Over the sandstone flats there were 

 some ugly ledges, but on the whole the course was down- 

 hill and relatively easy. Looking at the way the work 

 was done, at the good-will, the endurance, and the bull- 

 like strength of the camaradas, and at the intelligence and 

 the unwearied efforts of their commanders, one could but 

 wonder at the ignorance of those who do not realize the 

 energy and the power that are so often possessed by, and 

 that may be so readily developed in, the men of the trop- 

 ics. Another subject of perpetual wonder is the attitude 

 of certain men who stay at home, and still more the 



