A YOUNG NATURALIST. 255 



a kind of vague melancholy. The limited prospect and the pro- 

 found silence (for birds rarely venture into this forest-ocean), 

 also tend to fill the soul with gloomy thoughts, and prove that 

 health of mind as well as of body depends upon light. 



A furnace-like heat compelled us to keep silence, and tree 

 succeeded tree with sad monotony. The moist soil gave way 

 under our feet, and retained the traces of our footsteps. At 

 a giddy height above our heads the dark foliage of the spread- 

 ing branches entirely obscured the sky. Every now and then 

 I gave a few words of encouragement to Lucien who was walk- 

 ing behind me, quite overcome with the heat ; especially, I recom- 

 mended him not to drink, in the first place, because the water 

 must be economised, and next because it would only stimulate 

 his thirst. 



" Then we shall never drink any more," said the boy. 



"Oh! yes, Chanito," rejoined the Indian, "when we form our 

 bivouac, I shall make plenty of coff'ee, and if you sip it, in a 

 quarter of an hour your thirst will be quenched." 



"Then. I hope we shall soon reach our bivouac," said Lucien, 

 mournfully. 



If I had consulted my own feelings, I should now have given 

 the word to halt ; but reason and experience enabled me to resist 

 the desire. It would really be better for Lucien to suffer for a 

 short time, than for us to lose several hours, especially if we 

 failed to find the stream we were seeking. It was necessary 

 to cross without delay the inhospitable forest which we had 

 entered, instead of waiting until hunger and thirst imperiously 

 cried — Onwards ! when perhaps we might be too exhausted to 

 move. 



The ground became undulating, and I hastened forward, 

 thinking to meet with what we wished for, when a glade, 

 which enabled us to catch a glimpse of the sun, enlivened us a 

 little. Here there was some grass, and a few shrubs and creepers. 

 I called Lucien to show him what to us was a new plant, the 

 h-omelia pinguin of botanists. 



Its ripe pink fruit was symmetrically placed in a circle of green 

 leaves. Lucien, knseling down, tried to pluck them. 



