. Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana . and recross the trackfreely, even in front of an approaching train. Water-fowl,Sun-bitterns -1 and the weird-voiced Trumpeters 25 walk upand down, and flocks of Seedeaters 132 drift here and there,gleaning seed from between the rails. The Trumpeters werea great surprise to us, as this is the first instance of theirbeing found north of the Orinoco River. One day we seethe leaves part, and a long, low-shouldered reddish formslouches across before us, without even a glance at us, andwe
. Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana . and recross the trackfreely, even in front of an approaching train. Water-fowl,Sun-bitterns -1 and the weird-voiced Trumpeters 25 walk upand down, and flocks of Seedeaters 132 drift here and there,gleaning seed from between the rails. The Trumpeters werea great surprise to us, as this is the first instance of theirbeing found north of the Orinoco River. One day we seethe leaves part, and a long, low-shouldered reddish formslouches across before us, without even a glance at us, andwe know it for the first South American puma (Fellsconcolor) which we have seen. Another red lion, as THE LAKE OF PITCH. 61 the natives called it, with two cubs, was seen not longbefore. Only the sloth is barred. He comes close to the endlessswath; he wanders from tree to tree up and down, peering dullyout across the track, but he cannot cross. The twenty-foottreeless embankment is as impregnable to him as a sheerwall of rock. With a weird cry he turns back and starts inanother direction through the Fig. 30. The Fatal Mother of the Lake. We reach the lake long before the dew is dried and beforethe freshness of the dawn is dissipated. Hurrying over theplanks and the temporary rails laid for the workmans hand-cars, we push on a half-mile or more to the southward, wherenothing mans proximity. To the north and westare irregular peaks running off into a blue and misty range —the foot-hills of the Spanish Main. To the south the highwoods are (lose to us and tower high overhead) but evenwith the eye of yonder lofty, soaring Vulture we could see no 62 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. mountains in that direction — nothing but flat, green milesof mangroves, stretching to the horizon over the immensedelta of the Orinoco. The pitch lake itself is surrounded onall sides by dense forests, the front ranks of which are madeup of the marvellously tall and graceful moriche palm
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