valley. They grew wild, for the slopes of the Andes are
the favourite soil of these gigantic grasses. They were set on end, side
by side, and then tied to each other and to the beams of palm-trees. On
the third day the "bussu" leaves were laid on, and the house was
finished.

CHAPTER XVIII.

TRACKING THE TAPIR.

It has been already mentioned that the stream in front of the house was
wider than at other parts, forming a sort of lake. There was a slow
current down the middle, but at the sides the water was nearly stagnant,
and there grew in some places bunches of flags interspersed with
beautiful white lilies. Among these could be distinguished that gigantic
_nympha_ so celebrated under the name of _Victoria regia_--for South
America is the native country of this rare plant.

Every night, as our party were resting from their labours, they heard
strange noises proceeding from the water. There was plunging and
plashing, and now and then a snorting sound like that sometimes uttered
by frightened swine. Perhaps it would have puzzled any of them to tell
whence these sounds proceeded, or what animal gave utterance to them,
for there could be no doubt they were caused by an animal. Some of them
guessed "alligators;" but that was not a correct guess, for although
there are plenty of alligators in all the rivers of tropical America,
there seemed to be none in that particular place.

In truth, they might have remained long in the dark about what creature
they thus heard sweltering about nightly, for they could neither see nor
hear anything of it in the day; but Guapo, who knew every sound of the
Montana, enlightened them at once. Guapo had been a keen _tapir-hunter_
in his time, and understood all the habits of that strange animal. It
was a tapir, then, which they had heard taking his regular nightly bath,
and regaling himself on the roots of the flags and _nymphae_.

Have you ever seen a tapir? Not a living one, I fancy; perhaps the skin
of one in a museum. He is an interesting creature, for this reason--that
he is the largest land animal indigenous to South America. The llama and
guanaco stand higher because their legs are longer, and they are far
inferior to the tapir in bulk and weight: while the bears of South
America, of which there are two or three species, are small-sized bears,
and therefore less than the tapir. In fact, no very large land animals
were found indigenous in the southern division of the America