Dow, our rear guard, getting out of patience with their annoyance, proposed a long shot with his Spencer rifle which in effect astonished the Indians by dismounting one of the most defiant. This caused evident dismay, for they immediately retreated with all speed to the foot-hills, leaving us unmolested for the rest of the day’s stage. Notwithstanding the delays of the land party, they were obliged to wait at the first open glade until night-fall for the arrival of the steamer. After the doctor had submitted to a thorough ablution of body and head, administered by the Bamboyle women, the cause of the steamer’s delay was explained. The steamer, after an hour’s progress from her night’s moorage, entered a broad expanse of water of lake-like dimensions formed by a confluent tributary from the west. The strong eddy caused by the making out of a spit from the eastern bank forced the boat to the opposite shore covered with the rank growths common to extensive alluvial deposits in semi- tropical latitudes. While the engine was exerting its utmost power to stem the current and cross the walled strength of the combined streams, Waantha, who was at his post with his canine friends, called Mr. Welson’s attention by signs to a broad spreading mangrove banian peculiar to the tributary deltas of the large South American rivers, which bear a strong resemblance to kindred growths in India. Among the pendant hybrid limbs, which had taken root in the muddy deposit, there appeared one that seemed to vibrate to and fro, coiling upon itself. With the glass the captain discovered that it was a huge amphibious anaconda hanging pendant from one of the horizontal branches by the prehensile attachment of its tail. The waving excitement of its corrugations and swaying reflection of its head from side to side, within circumscribed limits, aroused the spectators’ curiosity to learn the nature of its attraction. A nearer approach discovered, prone upon the interwoven platform of mangrove branches, a huge alligator with his head inward from the river. The reptile relation of the parties foreboded an instinctive encounter of sagacity and strength, which excited in Mr. Welson a strong repulsive desire to witness, as a comparative study, the result of a duel between individual representatives of species so nearly allied on the cold blooded verge of vitality. The captain, in order to afford him the privilege of recording the result for future reference, directed the bow of the boat cautiously toward the scene of encounter.