was cut, and the raft floated slowly
and silently down the current.

The raft soon drifted into a lagoon, covered with waders and web-footed
birds, which scarcely moved as we passed them, and some time was lost
before we could regain the course of the stream. At length, guided by
the palm-trees, our skiff glided between two banks bordered by trees,
the high tops of which sheltered us with their shade.

Every thing was calm around us, and we remained silent, awed by the
majesty of nature. The stream flowed on in one single sheet; creepers
hanging from the tree-tops drooped down into the water; while
kingfishers skimmed from one shore to the other, and humming-birds, with
their varied and shining plumage, fluttered about the flowers. Every now
and then a low-hanging tree impeded our passage, and we had to bend down
on the raft to avoid being struck by such obstacles. A mass of
under-wood often hid the interior of the woods from our view; but here
and there a break in the foliage allowed us a glimpse into its depths.
Ebony-trees, cotton-wood, pepper-trees, and palms, were intermixed with
tree-ferns, magnolias, white oaks, and willows. Here and there, too, a
sunbeam marked out a vast circle of light upon the dark water, and
myriads of aquatic insects, gnats, dragon-flies, and butterflies sported
in the air or swam over the glittering surface.

After a time, the state of inaction to which we were doomed, aggravated
by the stings of mosquitoes and large green-eyed flies, became a perfect
torture.

"Those are horse-flies," said Sumichrast to Lucien; "they are very fond
of blood, and are a misery to all kinds of mammals from one end of
America to the other."

[Illustration: "In front of us opened a glade, bordered by tall
palm-trees."]

"Their bite is more painful than that of the mosquitoes," answered
the boy, from whose hand a drop of blood was trickling.

"That is because their proboscis is armed with lancets which are sharp
enough to pierce the hides of bulls and horses."

During this voyage, Lucien amused himself by teaching the two parrots to
repeat the names of his brother and sister; but the birds, with one foot
held up and their heads bent down, although they paid great attention to
the words repeated by the boy, as yet did not profit much by the lesson.

In the course of our voyage we were constantly losing trace of the
current in some vast lagoon, and had often a long search till we found
it. In one of th