made that cut, and soon after I discovered another mark of a knife
upon another rubber tree. Evidently somebody had been there prospecting.
We followed the ancient track for some distance in a most winding
way--those marks, I judged, having been made about four years before.

My men were depressed to the utmost degree when, on following the track
of the stranger, we discovered the spot on the river where he had
evidently once more got into his canoe and gone. One more hope of
salvation shattered!

Curiously enough, upon that fourteenth day of starving my strength got up
again to a certain extent, although I still had no wish whatever to eat;
but my head began to swim with a strange sensation as if the trees of
the forest were tumbling down upon me. The impression was so vivid that
several times I fell in trying to avoid what I thought was a tree falling
upon me.

The swaying of my head seemed to get worse and worse all that day, until
the unpleasant sensation of the forest closing in and overwhelming me
became intolerable.

In the evening we came in for another storm, the rain being torrential
through nearly the entire night. During the day I had had the optical
illusion of trees falling upon me. During the night I had the real thing.
The upper part of the tree to which I had tied my hammock came down with
a terrific crash during a heavy gust of wind, and just missed my head by
a few inches. As it was it tore down my hammock with me inside it, and I
received a bump that I shall not forget in a hurry.

We certainly seemed to have no luck whatever on that fateful expedition!
Aching all over, soaked right through, water dripping down my hands, nose
and hair like so many little fountains, I proceeded to tie my hammock to
another tree, while poor Filippe and Benedicto, who had been caught in
the foliage and branches of the falling tree, were trying to disentangle
themselves from their unpleasant position. The tree had fallen because it
had been eaten up internally by ants. When it came down upon us they
simply swarmed over us, and bit us all over for all they were worth. I
have no wish whatever to have another such miserable night.

On September 18th we lost the whole morning owing to the torrential rain
which continued. We had not the strength to go on.

Now that Filippe and Benedicto had absolute faith in my compass, I had
again left the river where it described a big turn toward the south-west,
and it was not unti