22 
THE GOLDEN RIVER. 
difficult to catch their tiny twitterings. The 
white sand of an occasional bay carried prints 
of tapir, wild cat, deer, pig and jaguar. The 
fastnesses of the jungle must have been full of 
eyes that watched, and of lithe bodies that 
crept stealthily amongst the undergrowth; but 
not a leaf stirred to show their whereabouts. 
Graceful fork-tailed hawks, black and white, 
wheeled and turned. Sometimes a flock of 
green parrots, with their curious wavering 
flight, flew screaming from bank to bank, or a 
couple of toucans with huge red-gold beaks 
showed for a moment in a tree. 
Brilliant patches of orange and gold on the 
edge of the water rose fluttering as the launch 
neared them, and proved to be swarms of large 
butterflies, bright yellow above and pale green 
or lemon-coloured underneath. Amongst them 
a few coloured nasturtium-red, or orange as a 
tiger lily. In the clearings there were 
glimpses of giant peacock-blue ones, spreading 
their painted wings on some orchid or flowering 
tree. These clearings were few and far 
between, made for the growing of yerba, with 
a rough shed or two, and a wooden slide for the 
loading of the bags, perhaps a few orange trees 
and a patch of plantains. 
A figure ran out sometimes to watch with 
shaded eyes the passing of the launch, wonder¬ 
ing whence it came and whither it was bound : 
and all round the clearing the monte pressed 
