Ruins Of The Old Incan And Older Pre-Incan
Civilizations Are Come Across, Covered Now With Dense Jungle, But
Their Builders Have Disappeared.
To have left behind them until this
day ruins which rank with the pyramids for extent, and Karnak for
grandeur, proves their intelligence.
The peculiar rasping noise you now hear in the undergrowth has
nothing to do with busy civilization - 'tis only the rattlesnake
drawing his slimy length among the dead leaves or tangled reeds. No,
all that is past, and this is an old new world indeed, and romance
must not rob you of self possession, for the rattle means that in the
encounter either he dies - or you.
Meanwhile the work on shore progressed. Paths were cut in different
directions and the wonders of nature laid bare. The ring of the axe
and the sound of falling trees marked the commencement of
civilization in those far-off regions. Ever and anon a loud report
rang out from the woods, for it might almost be said that the men
worked with the axe in one hand and a rifle in the other. Once they
started a giant tapir taking his afternoon snooze. The beast lazily
got up and made off, but not before he had turned his piercing eyes
on the intruders, as though wondering what new animals they were.
Surely this was his first sight of the "lords of creation," and
probably his last, for a bullet quickly whizzed after him. Another
day the men shot a puma searching for its prey, and numerous were the
birds, beasts and reptiles that fell before our arms.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 116 of 313
Words from 30869 to 31138
of 83353
