However, there were certain drawbacks: the ground was so wet and spongy that the feet of the animals sank into it, and progress was accordingly very slow. Now and then we would come to a halt, owing to a huge boulder of rock or large trunk of a tree barring the passage absolutely. It was then necessary for the guides to seek the best way of overcoming the obstacle. Frequently we had to alight from our mules, as it was dangerous to ride them in many places. The guides and the muleteers walked on the uneven ground--now stony, and now slippery--with the agility of deer, sure-footed and unconscious of the difficulty. I had to invent a means of advancing: I placed myself between two of the guides, hooking one arm to a guide's on each side, and thus, though frequently stumbling, I never fell, but it may be readily understood that this mode of progression was neither comfortable nor rapid.
Another inconvenience was found in the thorny bushes, prickly plants, and trees which it was dangerous to approach, such as the _palo_ _santo_, so called because it is frequented by a kind of ant of that name, whose bite is most painful and induces a slight fever.
On the second day the guide who was ahead fired his gun, and, on our asking him for the cause, said:
As a matter of fact, he had killed a large specimen, said to be seven years old, as shown by the seven rattles that were taken from its tail. These things did not help to make the ride through the intricate forest more pleasant. We longed to see the open sky, which we could only discern through the veil or network of leaves and branches, and, by a phenomenon of sympathy between the lungs and the eyes, it seemed to us that we lacked air to breathe. Now and then we would come to a clearing, but we soon plunged again into the thick of it, and felt like wanderers gone astray in an interminable labyrinth or maze of tall trees, moist foliage, and tepid atmosphere.
The guides told us from the start that it would take from four to five days to reach the end of the forest. On the fifth day, towards noon, almost suddenly we came upon the open plain. Our hearts leaped for very joy, and we hailed the vast green motionless solitude, that extended far into the horizon before our eyes like a frozen sea, with a shout of joy. The trees of the forest stood as in battle-line in front of the endless plain; the sun darted its rays, which shimmered in the countless ribbons, some broader than others, of the silver streams sluggishly dragging their waves along the bosom of the unending prairie. Copses of _moriches_, an exceptionally graceful species of palm, dotted the plains in all directions. They seemed as though planted by the hand of man to hide behind them a castle, or some old feudal structure, which our imagination reared complete, full-fledged, with its walls, its roof, its turrets, and its legends. The site looked as if prepared for a large city about to be built, and waiting only for the arrival of its architects and inhabitants, even as the white page tarries for him that is to inscribe upon it a living and immortal thought.
