ne time we were slowly gliding down a wide
river whose banks were not only covered to the water's edge with the
dense growth of the primeval forest, but the huge branches of the great
trees spread far over the muddy flood. These trees were woven together,
as it were, by the huge cable-like lianas which ran from tree to tree.
From others hung the draperies of Spanish moss, while others were
clothed with flowers from the water's edge to the very summits, whose
sweet blooms filled the air with their spicy odours. This wondrous wall
of verdure rose to a great height; and when the current sometimes swept
us near what was really a shoreless shore great herons would sometimes
take flight, or a troop of monkeys rush chattering up amongst the leafy
branches, going along hand over hand with the most astonishing velocity,
or making bounds that I would think must end in their falling headlong
into the river. But no, they never seemed to miss the branch that was
their aim, and this, too, when often enough one of these agile little
creatures would be a mother with a couple of tiny young ones clinging so
tightly to her neck that the three bodies seemed to be only one.

Curious little creatures these monkeys were, but as a rule exceedingly
shy. Sometimes on a hot mid-day I would be seated listlessly, paddle in
hand, dipping it now and then to avoid some mass of tangled driftwood,
and then watching the great wall of verdure, I would see the leaves
shake a little and then all would be still; but if I watched attentively
as we glided by, it was a great chance if I did not see some little,
dark, hairy face gazing intently down at me with the sharp, eager eyes
scanning my every movement, and if I raised a hand the little face was
gone like magic, a rustling leaf or waving strand of some
convolvulus-like plant being all that was left to show where the little
creature had been.

At other times, instead of the winding river with its walls of verdure,
we passed into what seemed to be some vast island-studded lake, some
being patches of considerable extent, others mere islets of a dozen
yards across, but all covered with trees and tangled with undergrowth.
Landing on any of these was quite impossible unless through one of the
verdant tunnels in which now and then there would be a swirl of the
water that formed their bottom, showing where some huge reptile had
dived at the sight of our boat and raft; while at other times a great
snout, with