Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/273

 employed in making the fire, roasting the fish, and boiling the coffee, the rest of the party mounted the bank, and with their long hunting-knives commenced cutting a path through the forest; the pool, called the Aningal, being about half a mile distant. After breakfast a great number of short poles were cut and laid crosswise on the path, and then three light montarias which we had brought with us were dragged up the bank by lianas, and rolled away to be embarked on the pool. A large net, seventy yards in length, was then disembarked and carried to the place. The work was done very speedily, and when Cardozo and I went to the spot at eleven o'clock we found some of the older Indians, including Pedro and Daniel, had begun their sport. They were mounted on little stages called moutás, made of poles and cross-pieces of wood secured with lianas, and were shooting the turtles, as they came near the surface, with bows and arrows. The Indians seemed to think that netting the animals, as Cardozo proposed doing, was not lawful sport, and wished first to have an hour or two's old-fashioned practice with their weapons.

The pool covered an area of about four or five acres, and was closely hemmed in by the forest, which in picturesque variety and grouping of trees and foliage exceeded almost everything I had yet witnessed. The margins for some distance were swampy, and covered with large tufts of a fine grass called Matupá. These tufts in many places were overrun with ferns, and exterior to them a crowded row of arborescent arums, growing to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, formed a