182 MARTIN RATTLER.

rose like massive columns out of the deep water.
There was enough of animal life there, however, to
amuse and interest them. The constant plash of
falling fruit showed that birds were feeding over-
head. Sometimes a flock of parrots or bright-blue
chatterers swept from tree to tree, or a trogon
swooped at a falling bunch of fruit and caught it
ere it reached the water; while ungainly toucans
plumped clumsily down upon the branches, and sat,
in striking contrast, beside the lovely pompadours,
with their claret-coloured plumage and delicate white
wings.

Vieing with these birds in splendour were several
large bright-yellow flowers of the creeping-plants
which twined round the trees. Some of these plants
had white, spotted, and purple blossoms ; and there was
one splendid species, called by the natives the flor de
Santa Anna—the flower of St. Ann—which emitted
a delightful odour, and was four inches in diameter.

Having traversed this part of the wood, they once
more emerged upon the main stream of the Amazon.
It was covered with water-fowl. Large logs of trees
and numerous floating islands of grass were sailing
down; and on these sat hundreds of white gulls, de-
murely and comfortably voyaging to the ocean, for

the sea would be their final resting-place if they sat