ed us like a wall, up which there was no visible
ascent. The tall, rank grass was also littered with boulders of
sandstone and short, gnarled, and distorted cork-trees; it was a
toilsome march for both men and animals, but there, certainly, must be
the head-quarters of all the peccaries of the region, for everywhere the
ground was furrowed and rooted up, the grass trodden down in long
lanes, the pools of water turbid, from their wallowing, and the place
odorous as a rank pigsty; and yet, strange to say, not a pig was to be
seen, fortunately for us; for in such an inconvenient place an attack
from these vicious animals in the numbers they could evidently collect
would have enabled them to take us at great disadvantage.

We pushed on the animals to get out of this pig-set man-trap, and
eventually got clear of the labyrinth on the farther side of the last
feeder of the main morass, and, after some difficulty, found an ascent
on to the _geraes_, where we made a bee-line to the Sapao across the
flats.

During the passage of the swamps the Don said,--

"Ah! Senhor Doctor, what a shame to leave such a lovely place; if
you and I were only here to-night, what fun we would have with the
peccaries; but, patience, they will make us a visit to-night, because
of the trail of the dogs."

But neither time nor place would permit of carrying out the Don's
desires, as there was neither water nor pasture for the animals. The
Don's remark about the peccaries paying us a visit is owing to a popular
belief that these animals, when in considerable numbers, will follow a
dog's trail for many miles, and attack and kill him. In fact, it is
customary with the hunters to imitate the barking of a dog to attract
the attention of the pigs, and induce them to collect together and make
an attack; when, the hunters being safely ensconced in trees, the game
is perfectly safe, as the men have only to shoot what they require.

The ground traversed that afternoon was not so free from bush as we had
hitherto found, being in many places thickly covered with dense cerrado
(abounding in immense quantities of the india-rubber-producing
Mangaba-tree), where progress was very slow and difficult, and required
the free use of our wood-knives. After a long and wearisome march, we
reached the valley of the Sapao again, quite eight miles from the
peccaries' haunt.

I found the river valley presented much the same characteristics as we
had found lower down. For th