The natives salt the 'roocoo and eat it. But Roland's Indian carriers managed to get through as many as could be caught, without any salt worth speaking about.

Surely the fish in this beautiful river must have thought it strange, that so many of their number were constantly disappearing heavenwards at the end of a line. But it did not trouble them very much after all, and they learnt no lesson from what they saw, but took the bait as readily as ever.

There were very many other species of fish, which not only gave good sport but made a most delicious addendum to the larder.

Boats and canoes were now in the river all day long, and with the fish caught, and the turtle which were found in great abundance, not to mention the wild animals killed in the woods, Roland managed to feed his little army well.

There is one fish in this river which is sometimes called "diabolo". He is no relation at all, however, to the real octopus or devil-fish, for this creature is flat. It seems a species of ray, and has an immense mouthful of the very sharpest of teeth. He is not at all dainty as to what he eats. He can make a meal off fresh-water shell-fish; he can swallow his smaller brothers of the deep; take a snack from a dead 'gator, and is quite at home while discussing a nice tender one-pound steak from a native's leg.

The young 'gator is neither fish, flesh, nor good red-herring. Yet if you catch one not over a yard long, and he doesn't catch you--for he has a wicked way of seizing a man by the hand and holding on till his mother comes,--his tail, stewed or fried with a morsel of pork, will tide you over a "hungry hillock" very pleasantly indeed.

If we turn to the pleasant reaches of the River Madeira, or the quiet back-waters, and, gun on shoulder, creep warily through the bush and scrub, we shall be rewarded with a sight that will well repay our caution.

Here of an early morning we shall see water-fowl innumerable, and of the greatest beauty imaginable.

Hidden from view, one is loth indeed to fire a shot and so disturb Nature's harmony, but prefers, for a time at all events, to crouch there quietly and watch the strange antics of the male birds and the meek docility of the female.

Here are teal, black ducks, strange wild geese, brown ducks, sheldrakes, widgeons, and whatnot.