n position, foil in hand, than all my
instructions were thrown to the winds, and he would charge and attack me
in his own barbarous manner, with the result that I would send his foil
spinning a dozen yards away, while he, struck motionless, would gaze
after it in open-mouthed astonishment.

Three weeks had passed by not unpleasantly when, one morning, I took
it into my head to walk by myself across that somewhat sterile savannah
west of the village and stream, which ended, as I have said, in a long,
low, stony ridge. From the village there was nothing to attract the
eye in that direction; but I wished to get a better view of that great
solitary hill or mountain of Ytaioa, and of the cloud-like summits
beyond it in the distance. From the stream the ground rose in a gradual
slope, and the highest part of the ridge for which I made was about
two miles from the starting-point--a parched brown plain, with nothing
growing on it but scattered tussocks of sere hair-like grass.

When I reached the top and could see the country beyond, I was agreeably
disappointed at the discovery that the sterile ground extended only
about a mile and a quarter on the further side, and was succeeded by a
forest--a very inviting patch of woodland covering five or six square
miles, occupying a kind of oblong basin, extending from the foot of
Ytaioa on the north to a low range of rocky hills on the south. From the
wooded basin long narrow strips of forest ran out in various directions
like the arms of an octopus, one pair embracing the slopes of Ytaioa,
another much broader belt extending along a valley which cut through the
ridge of hills on the south side at right angles and was lost to sight
beyond; far away in the west and south and north distant mountains
appeared, not in regular ranges, but in groups or singly, or looking
like blue banked-up clouds on the horizon.

Glad at having discovered the existence of this forest so near home, and
wondering why my Indian friends had never taken me to it nor ever went
out on that side, I set forth with a light heart to explore it for
myself, regretting only that I was without a proper weapon for procuring
game. The walk from the ridge over the savannah was easy, as the barren,
stony ground sloped downwards the whole way. The outer part of the wood
on my side was very open, composed in most part of dwarf trees that grow
on stony soil, and scattered thorny bushes bearing a yellow pea-shaped
blossom. Prese