There Was, However, One Sight More Beautiful Than All The Rest, And That Was The Incredible Number Of Butterflies Fluttering

About like a swarm of bees, and they had no doubt chosen this glen as a place of refuge against

The fury of the elements. They were variegated by the most brilliant tints and colourings imaginable: the wings of some of them were of a shining green, edged and sprinkled with gold; others were of a sky-blue and silver, others of purple and gold a lightfully blending into each other, and the wings of some were like dark silk velvet, trimmed and braided with lace.

The appearance of the travelling party was romantic in the extreme, as they winded down the paths of the glen; with their grotesque clothing and arms, bundles, and fierce black countenances, they might have been mistaken for a strange band of ruffians of the most fearful character. Besides their own immediate party, they had hired twenty men of Adooley, to carry the luggage, as there are not any beasts of burthen in the country, the natives carrying all their burthens upon their heads, and some of them of greater weight than are seen carried by the Irishwomen from the London markets. Being all assembled at the bottom of the glen, they found that a long and dangerous bog or swamp filled with putrid water, and the decayed remains of vegetable substances intersected their path, and must necessarily be crossed. Boughs of trees had been thrown into the swamp by some good-natured people to assist travellers in the attempt, so that their men, furnishing themselves with long poles which they used as walking sticks, with much difficulty and exertion, succeeded in getting over, and fewer accidents occurred to them, than could have been supposed possible, from the nature of the swamp. John Lander was taken on the back of a large and powerful man of amazing strength. His brawny shoulders supported him, without any apparent fatigue on his part, and he carried him through bog and water, and even branches of tress, no bigger than a man's leg, rendered slippery with mud, in safety to the opposite side. Although he walked as fast and with as much ease as his companions, he did not set him down for twenty minutes; the swamp being, as nearly as they could guess, a full quarter of a mile in length. They then walked to a small village called Basha, whence, without stopping, they continued their journey, and about four in the afternoon, passed through another village somewhat larger than the former, which is called Soato. Here they found themselves so much exhausted with over fatigue and want of food, that they were compelled to sit down and rest awhile. The people, however, were a very uncourteous and clownish race, and teazed them so much with their rudeness and begging propensities, that they were glad to prosecute their journey to save themselves from any further importunities.

Having passed two other swamps, in the same manner as they had done before, they were completely tired, and could go no further, for they had been walking during the whole of the day in an intricate miserable path, sometimes exposed to the sun, and sometimes threading their way through a tangled wood.

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