almost powerless, and nothing will induce them to jump into the water to release a log that has grounded.

The logs often get jammed between rocks, or, if the flood is high, among the branches and trunks of the trees. Often it is impossible to distinguish the creek from the flooded forest, and the freshet, subsiding, leaves the logs stranded in the bush, from which they have to be again rolled into the creek. Generally several freshets are necessary before all the logs are driven to the main river, where in a secure eddy they are stopped by a boom made of logs, chained together and fastened to trees.

The logs are made up into rafts and floated to the mouth of the river, where they are rolled on shore and squared with the broad axe. Then they are tumbled again into the river, made up into small rafts, and drifted with the ebb tide out to the ship, which is riding at her anchors off the mouth of the river..

CHAPTER XIII.

Dry weather-Our women-Our hunters-The puma-Monkeys-Eagles -Hawks-Owls-Goatsuckers-Pickwa.

A LONG period of dry weather came on; even the dark damp bush got dry, and many fires spread in the woods.

On one occasion the bush all round our camp was on fire, and we spent an anxious night for fear of being burnt out. The creek became very small, and the usual roar of our waterfall near the camp subsided to a gentle murmur; our creek became filthy from the refuse thrown into it, which lodged against fallen bamboos and refused to drift away.

I was so weary of the shade and gloom of the forest that I used to gaze up at the blue sky through the trees, envying even the light clouds, driven by the brisk trade wind, their freedom. I longed to have wings to fly out of this shady pit, to see the wide world, the busy haunts of men, to cross the beautiful ocean and get among my own people in distant Scotland, to take my place in the race of life instead of dreaming and fretting among these wild men of the woods. After many years I did get out into the busy haunts of men; I ran my race, and when I was wearied I wished I were back in the beautiful forests of Central America, to dream. and rest and fret no longer!

I do not know what we should have done without Cupid. His songs, his loud whistling, his jokes and laughter, poured oil, I believe, on many a ruffled temper. The Indians seldom

use drums, but no negro can get on without one. So Cupid stretched a deerskin over a pork barrel, and found no end of pleasure in loudly whistling jigs, fandangoes, and carabinis, while beating the drum with the tips of his fingers. Often, carried away by his feelings, he dropped his drum and pranced round the shed in the elegant steps of the waltz or the Spanish punta, till, breathless with the exertion and whistling, he lay on the floor, and commenced to taunt the astonished Indians with their boorish ignorance of the elegant amusements of civilization.

Our womenfolk caused us some little trouble. They stayed in camp, and we found that men often complained of being ill, and returned to the camp during working hours, really to amuse themselves with the women. This the husbands found fault with, and some of the men took their wives with them to their work, where they were again found to be great disturbers of business. One day one of them got bitten on the instep by a snake, and as we had none of their sookias, or medicine-men, in camp, they wanted to take her out of the creek to the main river settlement. I took a great responsibility on myself in preventing their doing so, by telling her husband that she would probably die on the journey, and offered myself to do what I could. So I tied a cord round her leg, cut a gash in her foot over the two punctures made by the teeth, and sucked the wound till my cheeks refused to act from exhaustion. Then I applied a rag soaked in hartshorn to the wound, and gave her some to drink. Her leg swelled very much, and gave her a great deal of pain, but after getting very low she gradually recovered.

One day three young men had been sent hunting, and on returning in their pitpan they suddenly came on several of our women bathing in the creek; news of this soon leaked out, and the husbands made a great row, and insisted on being paid by the young men for seeing their wives naked. I took the part of the young men, explaining that it was an

accident, and therefore the men were not at fault; but the husbands insisted on payment, and all I could do was to mitigate the amount of the fine. However, so many quarrels cropped up on account of our women that we had to get rid of them, and they were packed off to the main river. This step did not entirely alleviate the trouble, for now the husbands kept coming for leave to go to the village on the main river, and then delayed returning under the excuse that they had to devote a day or two to hunting in order to provide some meat for the women, who, as they described it, were dying of meat hunger,' having only plantain and maize to eat, with what few fish the feeble skill of woman sufficed to provide.

We had one or more men who were selected to do our hunting, and provide fresh meat for the gang. They were away in the forest from morning till night, but seldom brought much game; frequently I accompanied them, and with my double-barrelled gun I generally killed twice as much as our hunters could, although they were also armed with guns.

One day, when our hunter and I were on the hunting-path, we sat down on a log to rest, and he told me to stay where I was until he went down to the creek to see if there were any tracks in the sand. I leant my gun against the log and sat looking on the ground. Presently I felt as if someone was looking at me, and, raising my head, saw a large puma standing ten yards off, gazing at me with that fearless, penetrating look which is characteristic of the felines. I seized my gun and stood up, but it never moved, except by giving its tail a sweep. I was spellbound and did not know what to do, though I had the sense not to fire at it, as my gun was only loaded with shot. I turned my head for an instant to see if my man was coming, and when I looked again the puma was gone, vanished like a ghost, without a sound. When I told the man of it, he approved of my discretion in not firing at it, as he said it would have killed me if wounded.

The puma is certainly the most beautiful of all the cat tribe; it has long, elegant legs, a rather slender body, a long neck, and a beautiful head, which it carries proudly raised. In Central America the colour of the puma is a reddishbrown, like the colour of the African lion. In South America the same animal is mouse colour.

The puma presents a great contrast to the jaguar, which has short, very thick legs, and a stout muscular body, thick neck, large heavy head, while its attitude is crouching and treacherous. The puma is very active, and most destructive to cattle, pigs, dogs, and even to fowls. It occasionally attacks man, but only when he is alone.

When the Indian joined me, we sat on the log to rest and smoke a pipe. He told me that he was hunting one day, when he heard the clashing of teeth and barking of a drove of warree; he crept cautiously up till he saw a deep ravine spanned by a fallen tree, on which was a large puma with a young warree in its teeth, and on each bank of the ravine a drove of peccary were rushing about in great fury; occasionally some of them charged the puma on the tree, but always slipped off and fell into the ravine. At last the puma dropped its prey, and, creeping towards the butt of the tree, bounded over the heads of the peccary and disappeared, followed by the drove at full speed. Knowing the dangerous state of excitement they were in, the Indian did not follow them up. A month afterwards he and several others hunting in the same place followed up the direction the chase had taken, and found the skeleton of the puma surrounded by three or four warree.

One day, when our men returned from their work, one of them related that he was alone, felling a large tree, when he saw a drove of white-faced monkeys approaching along the bamboos between him and the edge of the creek. He laid down his axe, and sat down to look at them. They were feeding on the seeds of the bamboos, and presently he saw a