DIFFICULTIES OF FOOD SUPPLY 285 



seeing ; but, beautiful although the country ahead of 

 us was, its character was such as to promise further 

 hardships, difficulty, and exhausting labour, and especi- 

 ally further delay ; and delay was a serious matter to 

 men whose food supply was beginning to run short, 

 whose equipment was reduced to the minimum, who 

 for a month, with the utmost toil, had made very slow 

 progress, and who had no idea of either the distance or 

 the difficulties of the route in front of them. 



There was not much life in the woods, big or little. 

 Small birds were rare, although Cherrie's unwearied 

 effiarts were rewarded from time to time by a species 

 new to the collection. There were tracks of tapir, deer, 

 and agouti ; and if we had taken two or three days to 

 devote to nothing else than hunting them we might 

 perchance have killed something ; but the chance was 

 much too uncertain, the work we were doing was too 

 hard and wearing, and the need of pressing forward 

 altogether too great to permit us to spend any time in 

 such manner. The hunting had to come in incidentally. 

 This type of wellnigh impenetrable forest is the one 

 in which it is most difficult to get even what little game 

 exists therein. A couple of curassows and a big 

 monkey were killed by the Colonel and Kermit. On 

 the day the monkey was brought in Lyra, Kermit, and 

 their four associates had spent from sunrise to sunset in 

 severe, and at moments dangerous, toil among the rocks 

 and in the swift water, and the fresh meat was 

 appreciated. The head, feet, tail, skin, and entrails 

 were boiled for the gaunt and ravenous dogs. The 

 flesh gave each of us a few mouthfuls ; and how good 

 those mouthfuls tasted ! 



Cherrie, in addition to being out after birds in every 

 spare moment, helped in all emergencies. He was a 



