
1891.] The Island of Mindoro. 1047 
if heated in a furnace, and we would follow along under the 
shady side of the jungle whenever possible. Life was rare; a 
little kingfisher or a small gray heron would now and then take 
flight from among the driftwood, or we would see the great 
Philippine snake bird flying along the stream or perched on the 
driftwood, stretching its long neck at the approach of danger. On 
lighting in the water it would frequently sink and walk on the 
bottom, its head and neck standing out of the water above. 
About noowe stopped at one of the rapids and waited for the 
canoe to come up. A snake bird I had shot had fallen in a 
lagoon formed in an old bed of the river, and one of the Indian 
boys mounted the buffalo and forced him to swim in after it. 
Crocodiles were plenty, so that he did not dare to go in alone. 
Tracks of tame buffaloes run wild, cémarones, were abundant 
and Pedro said that there were on the river somewhere some 
twelve or fifteen of his ownrun wild, with their young born in 
the jungle, making a herd of thirty or more. Here and ‘there 
among these tracks he picked out smaller, rounder ones, which 
he said were the tracks of the tamarou. We passed soon after 
the mouth of a stream not now running, but with water in pools 
along its bed, which was called rio muerto (dead river), and was 
said to connect and give canoe passage across to the town of 
Calapan in the rainy season. About three in the afternoon two 
tamarou started out of the cane-brake within a few feet of us, 
and without breaking cover rushed into the forest behind. Pedro 
tied his buffalo to a bush, and taking my gun, started after the 
game. The canoe coming up soon after, the buffalo took fright 
- and dashed away, and was in great danger of becoming a cima- 
rone, but the whole party turned out and captured it, and Juan, 
the cook, mounting it, we moved on. Suddenly old Juan, who 
was ahead, came running back, shouting ¢amarou as loud as he 
could yell; and on hurrying around a bend we saw, a hundred 
yards away on the other bank of the river, what looked to me 
wonderfully like a buffalo calf—and this did not take fright at 
Juan, who still kept shouting’and calling down upon us all kinds 
of maledictions because we had no gun with us. Before the 
canoe came up with the other guns, two Indians (Christians) 
