THE CH0C6 COUNTRY 75 



know what object they had in mind as we always out- 

 distanced them. We also saw others catching crabs in 

 places where the high, sheer banks were honeycombed with 

 holes made by these crustaceans. They had slender, sharp- 

 ened sticks with a barb on the end, which they inserted m 

 the burrows and then withdrew with the struggling victims 

 impaled on them. 



We reached the mouth of the San Juan in two days* time. 

 The river is very wide at this point and dotted with low 

 mangrove islands. A sand-bar almost completely blocks 

 the estuary, and when we left the next morning we had 

 great difficulty in finding a passage. Then followed a wild, 

 careening dash of forty miles in the open ocean. The 

 launch was but twenty-one feet long, and we were com- 

 pelled to go out of sight of land to avoid rocks and reefs; 

 but dusk found us well within the confines of Buenaventura 

 Bay, ploughing through the placid water at great speed 

 and frightening up innumerable flocks of brown pelicans 

 that much preferred to float comfortably on the imruffled 

 surface, and took wing only as a last resort to escape being 

 run down. 



Buenaventura had never seemed attractive or inviting 

 to us before, but after a month in the steaming coastal 

 land, with its almost constant downpour, insect pests, and 

 terrific heat, it appeared to be altogether delightful. We 

 returned to Call and spent weeks on our backs suffering 

 from the fevers with which we had become inoculated. 

 Allen's attack was so severe that he was compelled to re- 

 turn to the United States two days after reaching San 

 Agustin on our next expedition, and just before the dis- 

 covery of some of our most valuable material. 



