rse
than an actually connected route. Nothing but mules, whose cat-like
propensities enable them to overcome apparently insurmountable
difficulties, could possibly have done the journey. In places the path
was so narrow that two of these animals were unable to pass abreast, so
that one would be obliged to go back into a convenient corner, or
scramble up a bank, to permit the other to go by.

The forest was dense, but, as it was just prior to the rains, almost
leafless, everything being burned and parched up except in the valleys
and bottoms of ravines, where running water rendered the vegetation
luxuriant and flourishing. This absence of foliage, though detracting
considerably from the beauty of the forest, permitted us to view all
the better its feathered denizens, and in few tropical countries have I
seen such lovely birds, or in such numbers as out here. To classify or
name them would require a man to be a perambulating encyclopaedia of
natural history; but among them all I was most struck with the number of
specimens of the woodpecker class, several of which were very beautiful.
One in particular with a blood-red topknot, which glittered vividly in
the sun, I envied much for my fishing-book, and regretted the guide had
my gun in his possession nearly a mile behind.

As the sun was setting we entered the village, which consisted of a few
mud huts with sideless roofs, and halting before one of them, was
informed by the guide that it was to be our quarters for the night. It
was simply a roof of palm-leaves over a mud floor, there being no kind
of wall or even screen, and it formed the universal dormitory of men,
women, and children, pigs and poultry, at the principal hotel--the
Claridge's, in fact--of Pira la Questa. Leaving the proprietress and her
numerous progeny engaged in hunting down an active-looking fowl for our
evening repast, we rode to the lagoon, and giving the guide our mules
to hold, shot a few of the curious-looking aquatic birds, which he
pronounced to be "bueno," or good for eating, that were feeding round
the banks. It was rapidly getting dark, and seeing at a distance some
birds that I took to be duck, I noiselessly crept down on them. To do so
I had to pass over a small spot of white sand, concealed, until I was on
it, by a clump of bushes.

While still silently watching the birds I saw something move a little to
my right, and on turning round discovered a huge alligator, whom I had
almost cut of