Down an Unknown River 305 



although the country ahead of us was, its character was 

 such as to promise further hardships, difficulty, and ex- 

 hausting labor, and especially further delay; and delay 

 was a serious matter to men whose food supply was be- 

 ginning to run short, whose equipment was reduced to the 

 minimum, who for a month, with the utmost toil, had 

 made very slow progress, and who had no idea of either 

 the distance or the difficulties of the route in front of 

 them. 



There was not much life in the woods, big or little. 

 Small birds were rare, although Cherrie's unwearied 

 efforts were rewarded from time to time by a species new 

 to the collection. There were tracks of tapir, deer, and 

 agouti ; and if we had taken two or three days to devote 

 to nothing else than hunting them we might perchance 

 have killed something ; but the chance was much too un- 

 certain, the work we were doing was too hard and wear- 

 ing, and the need of pressing forward altogether too great 

 to permit us to spend any time in such manner. The 

 hunting had to come in incidentally. This type of well- 

 nigh impenetrable forest is the one in which it is most 

 difficult to get even what little game exists therein. A 

 couple of curassows and a big monkey were killed by the 

 colonel and Kermit, On the day the monkey was brought 

 in Lyra, Kermit, and their four associates had spent from 

 sunrise to sunset in severe and at moments dangerous toil 

 among the rocks and in the swift water, and the fresh 

 meat was appreciated. The head, feet, tail, skin, and en- 

 trails were boiled for the gaunt and ravenous dogs. The 

 flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls; and how good 

 those mouthfuls tasted ! 



