3i8 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



which I could scarcely detect would lead him oil" in an entirely 

 new direction, not necessarily toward the sound, but often 

 to tlanl-c it or get to leeward of it. During the first two or 

 three hours fl'e would give our whole attention to hunting, 

 but when the day's supph' was |)rovided, we tlien stalked the 

 birds and wild creatures and watched them, as closely as we 

 could. 



Our first tramp was in a general south or southeast direc- 

 tion, ])assing over a succession of hills, five in all, three of 

 which were high and quite steep, but all of about the same 

 diameter with regular slopes and flat, narrow valleys. These 

 were mostly swampy, or if dry had a stream flowing slowly 

 along the middle. Agoutis were abundant in such places and 

 we could always depend on obtaining them when desired. 



As we left the Ijungalow I had laughingly asked Mrs. 

 Wilshire what meat she desired for dinner and she said 

 "Venison." So when I told Francis, in the broken English 

 which we must use in talking to these Indians, that we must 

 get deer, he nodded and disdained the agoutis. If I had 

 said, "Francis, we must be sure to get deer to-day in prefer- 

 ence to other game,'' he would have understood not a 

 word. But "Shoot-um deer, eh? no accourie, no labba, no 

 maipurie," outlined the day's work perfectly in his mind. I 

 was rather reluctant to use this «/;».' ugli! language at first; 

 it savored too much of theatrical Indian dialect or of 

 "penny dreadful" wild-west jargon, but it soon became 

 perfectly natural and was really necessary. 



After a half-hour's walk Francis motioned mc to take the 

 greatest care, and pressed my shoulder lower until I was 

 almost on my knees while we slowly crept around a great 

 mora trunk. He pointed steadily ahead, but after a three- 

 minute scrutiny I could discern not a sign of life. Then he 

 raised his gun and fired, and set loose a half dozen feathered 

 bombs, or so it sounded as a flock of nearly full-grown 



