58 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



The air blows cool and damp on our faces, and we long 

 for the keen power of scent of a dog. Even to our dull 

 nostrils every turn of the road is full of interest. A swamp, 

 thickly starred with dainty spider-lilies, comes into view, 

 and we inhale draughts of sweetest incense; Easter Sunday 

 is at hand, and the very wilderness reminds us of it. 



With every breath of air the great palm leaves flick myriads 

 of drops to the underbrush below, with a sound as of heavy 

 rain. The trunks arc black and soaked, and there is not a 

 dry frond for miles. A sudden curve brings another loop 

 of the river into view, with a foreground of scuttling crabs 

 and mangrove seedlings. Here a wave of coarse, salty, 

 marsh smell fills our lungs — not stagnant, but redolent of 

 the distant sea; the smell that makes one's blood leap. The 

 next quarter-mile is covered with lilies again. From their 

 perfume we enter a zone of recently cut grass — and the 

 incense brings to mind northern hay-fields and the sweet- 

 grass baskets of the Indians. What new pains and pleasures 

 would be ours could we possess the power of scent of some 

 of the "lower" animals! 



Temperate succeed tropical vistas; we see what at first 

 appears to be a grove of young chestnuts rising from rhodo- 

 dendrons and guinea-grass. A Spotted Sandpiper^^ heightens 

 the illusion, and the picture is complete when a familiar milk- 

 weed butterfly floats by and alights on a red and yellow 

 tansy. But just then a Macaw shrieks from a near-by tree — 

 the road-bed turns and reveals a tangle of palms and scarlet 

 heliconias — a monkey climbs up a leaf large enough to 

 shelter half a hundred of his kind. Strange palm fruits come 

 into view, some like enormous clusters or bunches of grapes — 

 each fruit as large as an orange ; or again a huge feathery, 

 dependent frond of dust-brown blossom and fruit protected 

 by an overhanging spathe like a huge umbrella. 



The jungle never gives up the struggle against the invading 



