222 



OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



All this and much else we passed in an hour, and at five 

 ■o'clock entcrcfl a third stream — the Barrabarra. The whole 

 country hereabouts is swampy, so when at dark we stopped 

 for our evening meal we did not land but rested quietly 

 among the lily pads. The Indians ate, as they did every- 



FiG. 92. Manatee browsing close to the Bank. 



thing else, silendy, with only now and then some low gut- 

 tural ejaculation. 



We flashed our powerful electric light upon the lilv pads 

 and found that the water was full of active life. Scores of 

 little fishes were resting motionless in the thin film of water 

 covering the lily leaves, some with the basal half of the body 

 and two lines up and down from the eyes, black. INIarciano 



