The wood afforded us pleasant shelter, and standing high and within gunshot of the mouth of the rocky pass, I resolved to make it our camping place. We therefore unpacked the cart, and made our usual arrangements for safety and comfort, not forgetting to examine the wood itself, so as to ascertain whether it harbored any dangerous animals. Nothing worse than wild cats was discovered. We disturbed several of these creatures in their pursuit of birds and small game, but they fled at our approach. By the time dinner was ready we felt much fatigued, and some hours of unusually sultry and oppressive heat compelled us to rest until toward evening, when returning coolness revived our strength. We pitched the tent, and then occupied ourselves with preparations for the next day, when it was my intention to penetrate the country beyond the defile, and make a longer excursion across the Savannah than had yet been undertaken. All was ready for a start at an early hour; my brave wife consented to remain in camp with Franz as her companion, while the three elder boys, and all the dogs, except Juno, went with me. We expected to find it somewhat difficult to make our way through the narrowest part of the pass, which had been so strongly barricaded and planted with thorny shrubs, but found on the contrary that the fences and walls were broken down and disarranged. It was thus very evident that the great snake, as well as the herd of peccaries, had made an entrance here. This barricade was the first check that had been placed by hand of man upon the wild free will of nature in this lonely place. With one consent storms, floods, torrents, and the wild beasts of the forest, had set themselves to destroy it. We resolved to make the defenses doubly strong, being convinced that the position was capable of being barricaded and fortified so as to resist the invaders we dreaded. The prospect which opened before us on emerging from the rocky pass was wide and varied. Swelling hills and verdant wooded vales were seen on one hand, while a great plain stretched before us, extending from the banks of the river toward a chain of lofty mountains, whose summits were rendered indistinct in the haze of the distance. We crossed the stream, which we named East River, filling our flasks with water, and it was well we did so, for in continuing our journey, we found the soil become more arid and parched than we had expected; in fact we soon appeared surrounded by a desert. The boys were astonished at the altered appearance of the country, part of which had been explored when we met with the buffaloes. I reminded them of the difference of the season; that the expedition had been made directly after the rains, when vegetation had clothed with transient beauty this region, which, possessing no source of moisture itself, had become scathed and bare during the blazing heat of summer.