ler rivers. Nothing could surpass the luxuriance of the
foliage, which not only lined their banks, but extended a long way
inland, strange birds of all sizes, from the diminutive humming-bird to
others of immense bulk, of the most gorgeous plumage, flew about among
the trees; while, as we paddled along, we heard the most curious
chatterings, and now and then, if we remained quiet for a few minutes,
we could see hundreds of little black and brown and yellow faces, with
bright eyes peering at us from among the boughs. The slightest movement
or noise made by us would send them scampering off along the branches,
or rather swinging themselves by hands and tails from bough to bough, or
from creeper to creeper, that being their favourite mode of locomotion.
They were clean, nice, respectable-looking little fellows, quite unlike
monkeys cooped up in menageries, or even in the Zoological Gardens, and
seemed to lead very happy and joyous lives. Gerard declared that if he
was not a human being really, the next best state of existence he should
desire would be that of a monkey on the banks of the Amazon. We were
not aware at the time of certain facts, which afterwards came to our
knowledge, which might detract somewhat from the desirability of the
existence; among others, that the natives shoot and eat the poor little
fellows with as little compunction as we should young pigs or fowls.

We were paddling along, admiring the wonderful foliage--one forest
seeming, as it were, to rise up out of the top of another, the lowest
being higher and thicker than any forest in northern regions--when
suddenly a huge black monster was seen swimming rapidly towards us.

"An alligator!" exclaimed McRitchie. "He'll make mince-meat of us in a
moment. My gun--quick, quick!"

I was handing him his gun when one of our native boatmen, laughing at
our fright, made signs that there was no danger, and seizing a piece of
drift-wood floating by, adroitly threw it across its mouth. The vast
jaw of the monster came crashing down on it. There they stuck, and the
native assured us, through Pedro, that he was now quite harmless.
McRitchie took a steady aim at the creature's eye, while a native stood
ready with a coil of ropes to throw over it directly it was killed, or
it would have sunk, I fancy, out of sight in an instant. McRitchie's
bullet took immediate effect, and we soon had the creature hauled up on
the nearest bank, where our medico had the oppo