hat the explorers got back to their camp,
and they were bone-weary from their extraordinary exertions; but they
had, as recompense, the knowledge that they had left their mine in such
a condition that no mere casual visitor would be in the least likely to
suspect its existence.

Immediately after breakfast on the following morning the party struck
camp and proceeded to climb the cleft. It cost the Indian carriers half
an hour's severe toil to accomplish the ascent, and when at length they
reached the summit they were only too glad to lay down their burdens and
take a rest while the two leaders, with the assistance of their pocket
sextants and Earle's pocket chronometer, determined the position of the
head of the gully. This done, and the calculations worked out and
checked, the march was resumed; the outer edge of the forest through
which their route lay being reached shortly after noon. And when at
length they sat down to their mid-day meal, all hands enjoyed an unusual
luxury; for about an hour before pitching camp, Dick, who chanced to be
leading the way, saw and shot something as it attempted to make off
through the long grass, that something proving to be a strange creature
partaking, in about equal proportions, of the characteristics of a pig
and a deer. Dick, of course, not being a naturalist, was unable to name
the creature, and even Earle declared himself puzzled; but whatever it
may have been, its flesh proved to be exceptionally tender, juicy, and
delicious, and the Indians fairly gorged themselves with it.

The forest into which the party plunged when the march was resumed
proved to be entirely different in character from that which they had
previously traversed. To begin with, the trees were all of new and
strange species, mostly bearing foliage of dark and gloomy tints; they
stood much farther apart; the undergrowth was sparse, or absent
altogether; and there were no orchids, or long, trailing garlands of
lovely parasitic growth which had rendered the forests already traversed
so strangely beautiful. Another peculiarity of the forest was that
scarcely a bird was to be seen, excepting an occasional vulture or
carrion crow perched upon some lightning-blasted stump. Moreover, there
was a strange silence pervading the place, a silence that seemed almost
uncanny, as though insects as well as birds shunned the place.
Altogether, the effect of the silence, the sombre tints of the foliage,
the absence of b