BREAKFAST ON AN ISLAND 133 



home-scenes the day was beginning to dawn. My clothes 

 were quite wet with the dew. The birds were astir, the 

 cicadas had begun their music, and the Urania Leilus, a 

 strange and beautiful tailed and gilded moth, whose 

 habits are those of a butterfly, commenced to fly in flocks 

 over the tree tops. Raimundo exclaimed ' Clareia o dia ! ' 

 (* The day brightens ! ') The change was rapid : the sky 

 in the east assumed suddenly the loveliest azure colour, 

 across which streaks of thin, white clouds were painted. 

 It is at such moments as this when one feels how beautiful 

 our earth truly is ! The channel on whose waters our 

 Httle boat was floating was about 200 yards wide ; others 

 branched off right and left, surrounding the group of 

 lonely islands which terminate the land of Carnapijo. 

 The forest on all sides formed a lofty hedge without a 

 break : below, it was fringed with mangrove bushes, 

 whose small foliage contrasted with the large glossy 

 leaves of the taller trees, or the feather and fan-shaped 

 fronds of palms. 



Being now arrived at our destination, Raimundo turned 

 up his trousers and shirt-sleeves, took his long hunting- 

 knife, and leapt ashore with the dogs. He had to cut a 

 gap in order to enter the forest. We expected to find 

 Pacas and Cutias ; and the method adopted to secure 

 them was this : at the present early hour they would be 

 seen feeding on fallen fruits, but would quickly, on hear- 

 ing a noise, betake themselves to their burrows : Rai- 

 mundo was then to turn them out by means of the dogs, 

 and Joaquim and I were to remain in the boat with our 

 guns, ready to shoot all that came to the edge of the 

 stream, the habit of both animals, when hard-pressed, 

 being to take to the water. We had not long to wait. 

 The first arrival was a Paca, a reddish, nearly tailless 

 Rodent, spotted with white on the sides, and intermediate 

 in size and appearance between a hog and a hare. My 

 first shot did not take effect ; the animal dived into the 

 water and did not re-appear. A second was brought 

 down by my companion as it was rambling about under 

 the mangrove bushes. A Cutia next appeared : this is 

 also a Rodent, about one-third the size of the Paca : it 

 swims, but does not dive, and I was fortunate enough 

 to shoot it. We obtained in this way two more Pacas 

 and another Cutia. All the time the dogs were yelping 

 in the forest. Shortly afterwards Raimundo made his 



