248 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [February, i 
two o’clock before we started. I was pretty well loaded, i 
with gun, ammunition, insect-boxes, etc., but soon got j 
on ahead, with one Indian boy, who could not under- ^ 
stand a single word of Portuguese. About half-way I 
saw a fine mutun, a little way off the road, and went I 
after it ; but I had only small shot in my gun, and 
wounded it, but did not bring it down. I still followed, 
and fired several times but without effect, and as it had 
suddenly got dark I was obliged to leave it. We had 
still some miles to go. The sun had set, so we pushed 
on quickly, my attendant keeping close at my heels. In 
the marshes and over the little streams we had now 
some difficulty in finding our way along the narrow I 
trunks laid for bridges. I was barefoot, and every I 
minute stepped on some projecting root or stone, or trod ■ 
sideways upon something which almost dislocated my 
ankle. It was now pitch-dark : dull clouds could just 
be distinguished through the openings in the high arch 
of overhanging trees, but the road we were walking on ! 
* was totally invisible. Jaguars I knew abounded here, 
deadly serpents were plentiful, and at every step I ll 
almost expected to feel a cold, gliding body under my 
feet, or deadly fangs in my leg. Through the darkness I 
I gazed, expecting momentarily to encounter the glaring 
eyes of a jaguar, or to hear his low growl in the thicket. "I? | 
But to turn back or to stop were alike useless : I knew ^ 
that we could not be very far from the village, and so * 
pressed on, with a vague confidence that after all nothing } . 
disagreeable would happen, and that the next day I should 
only laugh at my fears overnight. Still the sharp fangs 
of the dried snake’s head at Pimichin would come across 
