INSECT LIFE 171 



down through the cool night ; and wrapped in our 

 blankets we slept soundly, warm and comfortable. 



Next morning the trail had turned, and our course 

 led northward and at times east of north. We traversed 

 the same high, rolling plains of coarse grass and stunted 

 trees. Kermit, riding a big, iron-mouthed, bull-headed 

 white mule, rode off to one side on a hunt, and rejoined 

 the line of march carrying two bucks of the little pampas- 

 deer, or field-deer, behind his saddle. These deer are 

 very pretty and graceful, with a tail like that of the 

 Columbian black-tail. . Standing motionless facing one, in 

 the sparse scrub, they are hard to make out ; if seen side- 

 ways the reddish colour of their coats, contrasted with the 

 greens and greys of the landscape, betrays them ; and 

 when they bound off, the upraised white tail is very 

 conspicuous. They carefully avoid the woods in which 

 their cousins, the little bush-deer, are found, and go 

 singly or in couples. Their odour can be made out at 

 a considerable distance, but it is not rank. They still 

 carried their antlers. Their venison was delicious. 



We came across many queer insects. One red grass- 

 hopper when it flew seemed as big as a small sparrow ; 

 and we passed in some places such multitudes of active 

 little green grasshoppers that they frightened the mules. 

 At our camping-place we saw an extraordinary colony 

 of spiders. It was among some dwarf trees, standing 

 a few yards apart from one another by the water. When 

 we reached the camping-place, early in the afternoon — 

 the pack-train did not get in until nearly sunset, just 

 ahead of the rain — no spiders were out. They were 

 under the leaves of the trees. Their webs were tenant- 

 less, and indeed for the most part were broken down. 

 But at dusk they came out from their hiding-places, 

 two or three hundred of them in all, and at once began 



