A GOLD MINE IN THE WILDERNESS. 167 



A perfect medley of calls and cries came from the tree-tops 

 high overhead as we tramped along. In places the trees 

 were magnificent, looking like a maze of columns in some 

 great cathedral, roofed over with a lofty dome of foliage. 

 On this first walk the final impression was of a host of 

 strange sights and sounds, a few of which we were able 

 to disentangle on succeeding days. We had poured over 

 Waterton, Schomburgk and Bates but we realized anew the 

 utter futility of trying to reconstruct with pen and ink the 

 grandeur and beauty, and forever and always the mystery, 

 of a tropical forest. 



Then from the heart of the wilderness we came suddenly 

 upon man's handiwork; the tiny, twenty acre clearing of 

 the gold mine. On the outskirts of the forest were the frail, 

 frond-roofed shelters which marked the homes of the Indians 

 and the rough mud and thatch huts of the black laborers. A 

 dam was thrown across the narrow valley and on the rim of 

 the jungle lake thus made, was the powerful electric engine. 

 This great thing of vibrating wheels and pistons seemed 

 strangely out of place in the wilderness. As we watched, it 

 seemed to take on a semblance of dull life. Stolid-faced, 

 naked Indians fed it vast quantities of cord wood, and in return 

 it sucked up a great pipeful of water from the lake. The 

 pipe lay quietly on trestles, winding up and around a low 

 hill out of sight, giving no hint of the terrific rush of water 

 within. 



Following the pipe line we turn a sudden corner on the 

 hill-top and the heart of the clearing lies at our feet. At the 

 end of the pipe, far below, a man stands, barely able to guide 

 and shift the mighty spout of water which gushes forth. 

 Half the hill has been torn away by the irresistible stream, 

 which shoots upward in a majestic column and dashes with 

 a roar against the cliff of clay and rubble. The ever-widen- 

 ing gorge which the water has eaten into the hill glows in 



