metimes we found it dead, or standing
motionless waiting for death. From time to time we had to leave behind
one of our own mules.

It was not always easy to recognize what pasturage the mules would
accept as good. One afternoon we pitched camp by a tiny rivulet, in
the midst of the scrubby upland forest; a camp, by the way, where the
piums, the small, biting flies, were a torment during the hours of
daylight, while after dark their places were more than taken by the
diminutive gnats which the Brazilians expressively term "polvora," or
powder, and which get through the smallest meshes of a mosquito-net.
The feed was so scanty, and the cover so dense, at this spot that I
thought we would have great difficulty in gathering the mules next
morning. But we did not. A few hours later, in the afternoon, we
camped by a beautiful open meadow; on one side ran a rapid brook, with
a waterfall eight feet high, under which we bathed and swam. Here the
feed looked so good that we all expressed pleasure. But the mules did
not like it, and after nightfall they hiked back on the trail, and it
was a long and arduous work to gather them next morning.

I have touched above on the insect pests. Men unused to the South
American wilderness speak with awe of the danger therein from jaguars,
crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. In reality, the danger from these
sources is trivial, much less than the danger of being run down by an
automobile at home. But at times the torment of insect plagues can
hardly be exaggerated. There are many different species of mosquitoes,
some of them bearers of disease. There are many different kinds of
small, biting flies and gnats, loosely grouped together under various
titles. The ones more especially called piums by my companions were
somewhat like our northern black flies. They gorged themselves with
blood. At the moment their bites did not hurt, but they left an
itching scar. Head-nets and gloves are a protection, but are not very
comfortable in stifling hot weather. It is impossible to sleep without
mosquito-biers. When settlers of the right type come into a new land
they speedily learn to take the measures necessary to minimize the
annoyance caused by all these pests. Those that are winged have plenty
of kinsfolk in so much of the northern continent as has not yet been
subdued by man. But the most noxious of the South American ants have,
thank heaven, no representatives in North America. At the camp of the
pium