to cut them with one sharp blow of the large knives. But if you
did not happen to know the formation of the trees and you struck them the
wrong way, you had to hit them many times before you knocked them down.
The same thing and worse happened with liane, which could be severed
easily with one stroke if it were applied the right way, but which wound
round and entangled you in a merciless manner if hit at a wrong angle.

No observant person, however, experiences trouble in marching through the
Brazilian forest, and if not hindered by impossible followers it would be
quite easy to march long distances daily in any part of the forest
without much inconvenience.

This statement only applies to the actual marching, and does not at all
mean that you had not to go through severe sufferings and endless trials
of other kinds. Unless you were careful where you were sitting, you found
yourself spiked by thorns of great length which were strewn all over the
forest hidden under the thick carpet of discarded foliage from the trees.
Not only that, but the moment you sat down your body was simply invaded
by swarms of ants of all sizes and degrees of viciousness, which
proceeded to bite you all over with considerable vigour. There were not
many mosquitoes where the forest was dense, but there were millions--in
fact, milliards--of bees, which rendered your life absolutely unbearable,
as they clung to your face, hands and clothes. Fortunately, they did not
sting, but clinging with their claws upon your skin they produced such an
irritation that you were nearly driven mad by it.

Then there were fetid bugs of huge size, the sickening odour of which
when they touched you had quite a nauseating effect. They seemed to have
a particular fondness for settling upon your lips or entering your mouth.
When by mishap you swallowed them, their taste was something too
appalling. Once or twice while I was eating I had the misfortune to crack
one or two under my teeth. I had the bad taste of them in my mouth for
hours after.

When we halted for lunch my men were in a shocking condition. I could not
quite understand what had happened. Most of them seemed to suffer from
violent internal inflammation accompanied by high fever.

In order to make things as easy as possible for them I once more
rearranged the loads that afternoon, abandoning six hundred rifle
cartridges, several tins of hyposulphite of soda, other chemicals, all
the developing trays, etc