nature's solitude. 397 



dry. The stones were bleached by the sun, and there 

 was no track or impression which gave the slightest in- 

 dication of a path. Very soon this stony bed became 

 contracted and lost ; the stream ran through a different 

 soil, and high grass, shrubs, and bushes grew luxuriant- 

 ly up to its bank. We searched for the track on both 

 sides of the river, and it was evident that since the last 

 wet season no person had passed. Leaving the river, 

 the bushes were higher than our heads, and so thick 

 that at every two or three paces I became entangled and 

 held fast ; at length I dismounted, and my guide clear- 

 ed a way for me on foot with his machete. Soon we 

 reached the stream again, crossed it, and entered the 

 same dense mass on the opposite side. In this way we 

 continued nearly two hours, with the river for our line. 

 We crossed it more than twenty times, and when it 

 was shallow rode in its bed. Farther down the valley 

 was open, stony, and barren, and the sun beat upon it 

 with prodigious force ; flocks of sopilotes or turkey-buz- 

 zards, hardly disturbed by our approach, moved away 

 on a slow walk, or, with a lazy flap of the wings, rose 

 to a low branch of the nearest tree. In one place a 

 swarm of the ugly birds were feasting on the carcass of 

 an alligator. Wild turkeys were more numerous than 

 we had seen them before, and so tame that I shot one 

 with a pistol. Deer looked at us without alarm, and on 

 each side olf the valley large black apes walked on the 

 tops of the trees,, or sat quietly in the branches, looking 

 at us. Crossing the river for the last time, which be- 

 came broader and deeper until it emptied into the Pa- 

 cific, we entered the woods on the right, and reached 

 the first station of Mr. Bailey ; but it was covered with 

 young trees and bushes ; the woods were thicker than 

 before, and the path entirely undistinguishable. I had 



34 



