title: Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness
author:  Peter Matthiessen 
description: <b>Peter Matthiessen</b> was the cofounder of <i>The Paris Review</i>and is the author of numerous works of nonfiction, including <i>In the Spirit of Crazy Horse</i>, <i>Indian Country</i>, and <i>The Snow Leopard</i>, winner of the National Book Award.
zlib_text: In the boreal forests, untouched since time began …
  
  Maggie joined her husband Rob on a research mission into the wilderness of
  northern Maine. Instead of finding a land of beauty and peace, they found
  themselves caught in a nightmare-one that Maggie knew would never end.
  
  PROPHECY
  
  ii
  
  David Seltzer
  
  BALLANTINE BOOKS NEW YORK
  
  iii Copyright Š1979 by Paramount Pictures Corporation
  
  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
  Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of
  Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Ballantine Books
  of Canada, Ltd., Toronto, Canada.
  
  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 78-74246
  
  ISBN 0-345-28034-2
  
  Manufactured in the United States of America
  
  iv
  
  To Hector M’tal
  
  v
  
    
  
  1
  
  1
  
   **Prologue**
  
  Snow fell upon the Manatee Forest, ushering in the awesome silence of winter.
  It fell for five days and nights, burying the trees that provided work for the
  lumberjacks, icing the river tha