CHAPTER III. 
Tlie .Start. — Preparation of tho 
Past .Shirts and Panama Hats. 
— Brealcfa.st. — Turtle Souii. — 
Hunting the Alligators.— Niglit 
Camp. 
.HE lower course of Hie 
Madeiiu 2)resout.s, for 
more than four huucli’ed 
and sixty miles, a picture 
of grand .simplicity and, it 
luust be owned, monotony, 
wliicli, inaguificent as it 
appeal's at first, wearies 
the eye and sickens tbe 
lieart at last, — a dead calm 
on an unruffled, mirror- 
like .slieet of water glaring 
ill tlie sun, and, as far as the eye can reacli, two walls of dark 
green forest witli the dai'k-blue firmament above tiiem ; in the fore- 
ground, slender juilms, and gigantic orchid-covered trunks, with 
blooming creepers hanging from the wave-worn shore, ivith its red 
eartlislijis, dmvu into tlie turbid floods. Am hill breaks the finely 
indented line of the foliagi-, which everywhere bounds tlie horizon, 
onlj'^ here and there a few palm-covered sheds peep out of the green; 
and still more rarely do we sight one of their quiet dark inmates. 
.Stately kingfi.shei's looking thoughtfully into the river, Avhito herons 
CAXOE ,\ND CAMP LIFE. 
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