[Illustration: FIG. 123. WHERE ONLY OTTERS AND FISH CAN PASS.] Black-shelled mollusks were common on submerged logs, and on the banks above the water line were scores of curious spiders and insects, while dragon-flies of a half dozen or more species darted swiftly about. Throughout the morning we were never out of hearing of the hammering of Woodpeckers, or the cooing of Doves or the laughing, descending scales of Woodhewers. The Chinese music of the cicadas came to our ears, a sound which recalled vividly the forests of Venezuela. The water was now at a medium level, but after heavy rains when it is high, all the great tacubas six feet above our heads are submerged and much of the land along the river banks becomes a swamp. Farther upstream when the water became very shallow and the stream narrowed to twelve or fifteen feet, some of us left the ballyhoo in order to make the work of the blacks easier, and took to the trail. After a fifteen minutes’ walk we saw the glimmer of sunshine through the trees and knew that we had reached the gold mine of the Little Aremu. CHAPTER IX. JUNGLE LIFE AT AREMU. SOME PAGES FROM MY DIARY. (_By C. William Beebe._) Even more to the Gold Mine of Aremu than to Hoorie is the application “island” or “oasis” in the jungle, appropriate. The clearing is about twenty acres in extent, approximately circular, with the magnificent forest trees crowding densely to the very edge. The bungalow and mine shaft are on the summit of a symmetrical hill, which slopes evenly and steeply down on all sides. The hill is about a hundred feet in height and yet the trees far down at the foot tower high above it. The concession includes about seven and a half square miles, and in many places where the rock outcrops, well paying deposits of gold are visible. At Aremu there is a soft quartz ledge about eight feet wide running almost vertically and rich in gold. Often the metal is visible and a small lens shows the yellow crystals encrusting the white matrix. The first day at Aremu we went down in the mining bucket, two and two—each clinging to the wire cable and balancing the opposite person. Down and down went the swaying bucket, slowly revolving—the heat and sunshine of the upper air replaced by the cool darkness—damp and chilly with rich earthen, clayey smells. Eighty-five feet below the surface the four leads began, one a hundred feet along the vein. This consists of a ferrugineous gold-bearing quartz, somewhat decomposed by the dissolving out of several of its constituents. The candles shed a flickering light on the slimy, dripping walls and for a few moments one felt completely confused—so hard was it to stand there shivering and yet realize that a few yards overhead was brilliant tropical light and sunshine, gaudy birds and butterflies. One seemed in a wholly different world. [Illustration: FIG. 124. AREMU GOLD MINE, SHOWING BUNGALOW AND MINE SHAFT.]