THROUGH THE FOREST. I95 spécimen of a lepîdoptera. Further anxiety on his account was thus put to rest In spite of Harris's confident assertion that thcy were little likely to be molested by any of the nomad Indians, the whole company rejoiced in feeling that they were well armed, and they resolved to keep in a compact body. The way across the forest could scarcely be called a path ; ît was, in fact, h'ttle more than the track of animais, and progress along ît was necessarily very slow ; indeed it seemed impossible, at the rate thcy started, to accomplish more than five or six miles in the course of twelve hours. The weather was beautifuUy fine; the sun ascended nearly to the zénith, and its rays, descending almost perpendicularly, caused a degree of heat which, as Harris pointed out, would hâve been unendurable upon the open plain, but was hère pleasantly tempered by the shelter of the foliage. Most of the trees were quite strange to them. To an experienced eye they were such as were remarkable more for their character then for their size. Hère, on one side, was the bauhinia, or mountain ebony ; there, on the other, the molompi or pterocarpus, its trunk exuding large quantîtîes of resin, and of which the strbng light wood makes excellent oars or paddles ; further on were fustics, heavily charged with colouring matter, and guaiacums, t^velve feet in diameter, surpassing the ordinary kind in magnitude, yet far inferior in quality. Dick Sands kept perpctually asking Marris to tell him the names of ail thèse trees and plants. " Hâve you never been on the coast of South America before ? " replied Harris, without giving the explicit in- formation that was sought. " Never," said Dick ; " never before. Nor do I recollect ever having seen any one who has." " But surely you hâve explored the coasts of Columbia or Patagonia," Harris continued. Dick avowed that he had never had the chance. " But has Mrs. Weldon never visited thèse parts ? Our countrymen, I know, are great travellers." O 2
