THE GREAT SILENT FOREST 255 



there grew immense trees, and on some of them mighty 

 buttresses sprang from the base. The Uanas and vines 

 were of every size and shape. Some were twisted and 

 some were not. Some came down straight and slender 

 from branches a hundred feet above. Others curved 

 like long serpents around the trunks. Others were like 

 knotted cables. In the shadow there was little noise. 

 The wind rarely moved the hot, humid air. There 

 were few flowers or birds. Insects were altogether 

 too abundant, and even when travelling slowly it was 

 impossible always to avoid them — not to speak of our 

 constant companions the bees, mosquitoes, and especially 

 the boroshudas or bloodsucking flies. Now, while burst- 

 ing through a tangle, I disturbed a nest of wasps, whose 

 resentment was active ; now I heedlessly stepped among 

 the outliers of a small party of the carnivorous foraging 

 ants ; now, grasping a branch as I stumbled, I shook 

 down a shower of fire-ants ; and among all these my 

 attention was particularly arrested by the bite of one 

 of the giant ants, which stung like a hornet, so that 

 I felt it for three hours. The camaradas generally went 

 barefoot or only wore sandals ; and their ankles and feet 

 were swollen and inflamed from the bites of the boro- 

 shudas and ants, some being actually incapacitated from 

 work. All of us suiFered more or less, our faces and 

 hands swelUng slightly from the boroshuda bites ; and 

 in spite of our clothes we were bitten all over our bodies, 

 chiefly by ants and the small forest ticks. Because of 

 the rain and the heat our clothes were usually wet when 

 we took them them off" at night, and just as wet when 

 we put them on again in the morning. 



All day on the 13th the men worked at the canoe, 

 making good progress. In rolling and shifting the 

 huge, heavy tree-trunk everyone had to assist now and 



