CHAP. IV] OPOSSUM 93 



pleasant. In the evening the after-deck, open all 

 around, where we dined, was decorated with green 

 boughs and rushes, and we drank the health of the 

 President of the United States and of the President 

 of Brazil. 



Now and then we passed little ranches on the river's 

 edge. This is a fertile land, pleasant to live in, and any 

 settler who is willing to work can earn his living. There 

 are mines ; there is water-power ; there is abundance 

 of rich soil. The country will soon be opened by rail. 

 It offers a fine field for immigration and for agriculture, 

 mining, and business development ; and it has a great 

 future. 



Cherrie and MUler had secured a little owl a month 

 before in the Chaco, and it was travelling with them 

 in a basket. It was a dear little bird, very tame and 

 affectionate. It liked to be handled and petted ; and 

 when Miller, its especial protector, came into the cabin, 

 it would make queer little noises as a signal that it 

 wished to be taken up and perched on his hand. Cherrie 

 and Miller had trapped many mammals. Among them 

 was a tayra weasel, whitish above and black below, 

 as big and bloodthirsty as a fisher-martin ; and a tiny 

 opossum no bigger than a mouse. They had taken four 

 species of opossum, but they had not found the curious 

 water-opossum which they had obtained on the rivers 

 flowing into the Caribbean Sea. This opossum, which 

 is black and white, swims in the streams' like a musk-rat 

 or otter, catching fish and living in burrows which open 

 under water. Miller and Cherrie were puzzled to know 

 why the young throve, leading such an existence of 

 constant immersion ; one of them once found a female 

 swimming and diving freely with four quite weU-grown 

 young in her pouch. 



