APPENDIX B 



THE OUTFIT FOR TRAVELLING IN THE SOLT^H 

 AMERICAN WILDERNESS 



South America includes so many different kinds of country that it 

 is impossible to devise a scheme of equipment which shall suit all. 

 A hunting trip in the pantanals, in the swamp country of the upper 

 Paraguay, offers a simple problem. An exploring trip through an 

 unknown tropical forest region, even if the work is chiefly done by 

 river, offers a very difficult problem. All that I can pretend to do 

 is to give a few hints as the results of our own experience. 



For bedding there should be a hammock, mosquito-net, and light 

 blanket. These can be obtained m Brazil. For tent a light fly 

 is ample ; ours were brought with us from New York. In exploring 

 only the open fly should be taken ; but on trips where weight of 

 luggage is no objection, there can be walls to the tent and even a 

 canvas floor-cloth. Camp-chairs and a camp -table should be 

 brought — any good outfitter in the United States will supply them — 

 and not thrown away until it becomes imperative to cut everything 

 down. On a river trip first-class pulleys and ropes — preferably 

 steel, and at any rate very strong — should be taken. Unless the 

 difficulties of transportation are insuperable, canvas-and-cement 

 canoes, such as can be obtained from various firms in Canada and 

 the United States, should by all means be taken. They are incom- 

 parably superior to the dugouts. But on different rivers wholly 

 different canoes, of wholly different sizes, will be needed ; on some 

 steam or electric launches may be used ; it is not possible to lay 

 down a general rule. 



As regards arms, a good plain 12-bore shot-gun with a 30-30 

 rifle-barrel underneath the others is the best weapon to have 

 constantly in one's hand in the South American forests, where big 



342 



