224 



CROSS AGAIN THE SEARA-MEIRIM. 



brought it back. I am quite confident that he 

 did not see which way it went, ,and to a person 

 unused to tracing footsteps there appeared to be 

 none. If it had passed over sand, there would 

 not have been any thing extraordinary in dis- 

 covering the way which the animal had taken, 

 but upon grass and dry leaves so small an animal 

 could make but a most trifling impression. 1 

 mentioned at this place accidentally that the 

 skins had spoiled the water, for it tasted of the 

 grease with which they had been rubbed. Feli- 

 ciano heard me, and took up a small skin that 

 lay empty, which was old and therefore not 

 greasy, and said, " 111 try to find some for you 

 that is better ;" and away he went. In about 

 an hour he returned with the skin full of ex- 

 cellent water. He had recollected a cleft in a 

 rock at some distance, and had gone to see if 

 any yet remained in it. 



We slept at a faze?ida, and the next day pro- 

 ceeded in the expectation of reaching the Seara- 

 Meirim, which we did. This track of country 

 had not recovered from the drought, but the 

 trees were beginning to be clothed, and the 

 grass under them was in most parts of sufficient 

 length to afford subsistence to our horses. Wa- 

 ter was still scarce and bad, but the rain had made 

 it less brackish and more plentiful. We passed 

 over the travessia with all possible haste, as the 

 floods were expected shortly, and sometimes 



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