CAPTURED BY BBOWN BEARS. 
229 
articles he placed on the ground, waved his hands, as if 
in blessing, over the village, and departed with stately 
stride. 
Once out of sight, his dignity departed, and he scram- 
bled through the woods like a wild-cat, overtaking the 
main body at a little after midnight. 
The hieroglyphic on the map was clear. The Brown 
Bears dwelling in the caves, — any one could see it now. 
To avoid the hills, the route on the morrow swerved 
toward the north. The three peculiar-looking marks, 
" like croquet hoops," observed Floss, proved to indicate 
three rounded mountains, far to the west. The dots, 
some eighty miles further on, asserted themselves as 
swarms of mosquitoes in a swampy territory ; while the 
three K's, to the east, were nothing more nor less than 
flying eagles, of whom an immense number were seen 
soaring above the cliffs near the camp on August 20. 
On the next day a discovery was made, which struck 
terror into every heart. It meant privation, danger of a 
fearful kind, possibly death to one or all of the party. 
It will need but one sentence to explain all. And that 
must be the opening sentence of the next chapter. 
