A GOLD MINE IN THE WILDERNESS. 



199 



Spiders, ants and a host of other wingless insects were 

 crawling on many of the trunks, made captive by the flood. 

 Their inability to walk on the water was evident when we 

 knocked some of them off, so they must have lived on their 

 island trees for the last year, the time of existence of the 

 dam. The spiders were legion in species, hardly two alike, 



Fig. 87. The Drowned Forest. 



from minute ones, shaped like nothing else under heaven, 

 with relatively enormous hooks and thorns on their brightly 

 colored abdomens, to giant tarantulas, who stood up and 

 threatened us before beating a dignified retreat. 



The increase of water had attracted many water-loving 

 birds, and great Rufous Kingfishers " swung past us, strong- 

 winged, beautiful birds, carrying on their business of life 

 in a virile, unhesitating way. Between the trunks flashed 



