174 THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS [chap, vi 



headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has 

 mastered his weapon, need fear no foe. 



At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They 

 were to go direct to the first telegraph station, at the 

 great falls of the Utiarity, on the Rio Papagaio. Of 

 course, they travelled faster than the mule-train. Father 

 Zahm, attended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. 

 Cherrie and Miller also went in them, because they had 

 found that it was very difficult to collect birds, and 

 especially mammals, when we were moving every day, 

 packing up early each morning and the mule-train 

 arriving late in the afternoon or not until nightfall. 

 Moreover, there was much rain, which made it difficult 

 to work except under the tents. Accordingly, the two 

 naturahsts desired to get to a place where they could 

 spend several days and collect steadily, thereby doing 

 more effective work. The rest of us continued with 

 the mule-train, as was necessary. 



It was always a picturesque sight when camp was 

 broken, and again at nightfall when the laden mules 

 came stringing in, and their burdens were thrown down, 

 while the tents were pitched and the fires lit. We 

 breakfasted before leaving camp, the alumiuium cups 

 and plates being placed on ox-hides, round which we 

 sat, on the ground or on camp-stools. We fared well 

 on ricfe, beans, and crackers, with canned corned beef 

 and salmon or any game that had been shot, and coffee, 

 tea, and matt^. I then usually sat down somewhere to 

 write, -and when the mules were nearly ready I popped 

 my writing-materials into my duffel-bag — war-sack, as 

 we would have called it in the old days on the plains. 

 I found that the mules usually arrived so late in the 

 afternoon or evening that I could not depend upon 

 being able to write at that time. Of course, if we made 



