We Hewed Out A Spacious Arbor At The Edge Of The Jungle, And In
This I Had The Tent Pitched To Protect It From The Wind, Which It
Did Effectually, As Well As The Kennel, Which Was Near The Same
Spot.
The servants made a good kitchen, and the encampment was
soon complete.
There never could have been a more romantic or beautiful spot
for a bivouac. To the right lay the distant view of the low
country, stretching into an undefined distance, until the land
and sky appeared to melt together. Below, at a depth of about
three thousand feet, the river boiled through the rocky gorge
until it reached the village of Peréwellé at the base of the line
of mountains, whose cultivated paddy-fields looked no larger than
the squares upon a chess-board. On the opposite side of the
river rose a precipitous and impassable mountain, even to a
greater altitude than the facing ridge upon which I stood,
forming as grand a foreground as the eye could desire. Above,
below, around, there was the bellowing sound of heavy cataracts
echoed upon all sides.
Certainly this country is very magnificent, but it is an awful
locality for hunting, as the elk has too great an advantage over
both hounds and hunters. Mountainous patinas of the steepest
inclination, broken here and there by abrupt precipices, and with
occasional level platforms of waving grass, descend to the
river's bed. These patina mountains are crowned by extensive
forests, and narrow belts of jungle descend from the summit to
the base, clothing the numerous ravines which furrow the
mountain's side.
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