130 UP THE RIVER OF TAPIRS [chap, v 



bare feet. There was every gradation between and 

 among the nearly pure whites, negroes, and Indians. 

 On the whole, there was most white blood in the upper 

 ranks, and most Indian and negro blood among the 

 camaradas ; but there were exceptions in both classes, 

 and there was no discrimination on account of colour. 

 All ahke were courteous and friendly. 



The hounds were at first carried in two of the dugouts, 

 and then let loose on the banks. We went up-stream 

 for a couple of hours against the swift current, the 

 paddlers making good headway with their pointed 

 paddles — the broad blade of each paddle was tipped 

 with a long point, so that it could be thrust into the 

 mud to keep the low dugout against the bank. The 

 tropical forest came down almost like a waU, the taU 

 trees laced together with vines, and the spaces between 

 their trunks filled with a low, dense jungle. In most 

 places it could only be penetrated by a man with a 

 machete. With few exceptions the trees were unknown 

 to me, and their native names told me nothing. On 

 most of them the foliage was thick ; among the excep- 

 tions were the cecropias, growing by preference on 

 new-formed alluvial soil bare of other trees, whose 

 rather scanty leaf bunches were, as I was informed, 

 the favourite food of sloths. We saw one or two 

 squirrels among the trees, and a family of monkeys. 

 There were few sand-banks in the river, and no water- 

 fowl save an occasional cormorant. But as we pushed 

 along near the shore, where the branches overhung and 

 dipped in the swirhng water, we continually roused httle 

 flocks of bats. They were hanging from the boughs 

 right over the river, and when our approach roused 

 them they zigzagged rapidly in front of us for a few 

 rods, and then again dove in among the branches. 



