ing but agreeable under foot. The ground, as I have
already remarked was strewed with the fallen fruits. The whole surface
was literally covered with them, just like an an apple-orchard after a
stormy night, only that the palm-nuts lay thicker upon the ground than I
had ever seen apples--so thick that there was no picking of steps among
them, and in some places it was impossible to set down the foot without
treading upon and crushing them. Now the pulpy outer part, when thus
crushed, is almost as gummy and sticky as cobblers' wax, and the
consequence was, that walking over the nuts was no easy matter--in short
it was both difficult and disagreeable. Sometimes a whole cluster of
them would adhere to the soles of our shoes, or, slipping from under our
feet, would threaten us with a fall, and thus our advance was
continuously impeded or interrupted. It was quite as difficult to make
way as it would have been through deep snow or over ice, and it must
have taken us a full hour to get to the other side of the wood.

We reached it at length, and were very glad to see trees of another
kind, which, although far less beautiful than the palms, and with far
more gloomy shadows beneath them, grew upon ground that offered us good
footing, and we were now able to proceed without the danger of falling
at every step, or spraining our ankles.

Through this shadowy forest we kept on, but as no game of any kind was
seen we soon became tired of it, as we had been of the palms. In fact,
travelling through thick timber is very tiresome to persons who are not
used to it--that is, to those who have not been reared in a
forest-covered country, or used to a forest life. To such, the scene,
however striking at first, however picturesque it may be, soon appears
tame and monotonous. There is a great sameness in it--the trees are
alike, the vistas that now and then open out all resemble one another;
the ground, bare of grass or covered with withered leaves, presents but
little attractions, either to the foot or the eye, and the traveller
wearies of listening to his own tracks, oft repeated, and longs for a
piece of open ground where he may look upon the blue sky above him, and
press the green carpet of grass beneath his feet.

Just in this wise did my companion and myself long to get out of the
deep wood and into some more open kind of country, where we might see to
a good distance around us, and where Ben thought we should be far more
lik