GOATSUCKERS-SUPERSTITIONS-HORNED SCREAMER-TRUMPETER. Another species frequents the low lands of Demerara. He is nearly the size of the scarlet ara, but much inferior in plumage. Blue and yellow are his predominant colours. Along the creeks and river sides, and in the wet savannas, six species of the Bittern will engage your attention. They are all handsome. The smallest not so large as the English water-hen. the snow-white 27 in the holes of trees, are easily reared and tamed, and words so distinctly, that they have received their clandestinely inquires if you have a hundred a year learn to speak pretty distinctly. names from the sentences they utter, and absolutely in land to entitle you to enjoy such patrician sport. bewilder the stranger on his arrival in these parts. Here no saucy intruder asks if you have taken out a The most common one sits down close by your door, licence, by virtue of which you are allowed to kill the and flies and alights three or four yards before you, as birds which have bred upon your own property. Here you walk along the road, crying, "Who-are-you, who"You are as free as when God first made man, who-who-are-you?" Another bids you, "WorkEre the vile laws of servitude began, away, work-work-work-away.' A third cries mournAnd wild in woods the noble savage ran." fully, "Willy-come-go. Willy-Willy-Willy-comeBefore the morning's dawn you hear a noise in the go. And high up in the country, a fourth tells you forest, which sounds like "duraquaura" often reIn the savannas, too, you will sometimes surprise to "Whip-poor-Will. Whip-whip-whip-poor-Will." peated. This is the Partridge, a little smaller, and You will never persuade the negro to destroy these differing somewhat in colour from the English partEgrette, whose birds or get the Indian to let fly his arrow at them. ridge; it lives entirely in the forest, and probably back is adorned They are birds of omen and reverential dread. Jumbo, the young brood very soon leave their parents, as you with the plumes the demon of Africa, has them under his command; never flush more than two birds in the same place, from which it and they equally obey the Yabahou, or Demerara and in general only one. takes its name. Indian devil. They are the receptacles for departed Here too the souls, who come back again to earth, unable to rest spur-winged for crimes done in their days of nature; or they are Water-hen, the expressly sent by Jumbo, or Yabahou, to haunt cruel blue and green and hard-hearted masters, and retaliate injuries reWater-hen, and ceived from them. If the largest goatsucker chance two other species to cry near the white man's door, sorrow and grief of ordinary plu- will soon be inside; and they expect to see the master mage are found. waste away with a slow consuming sickness. If it be While in quest heard close to the negro's or Indian's hut, from that of these, the night misfortune sits brooding over it; and they Blue Heron, the await the event in terrible suspense. large and small Brown Heron, the Boat bill, and Muscovy Duck, now and then rise up be SPUR-WINGED WATER-HEN. fore you. When the sun has sunk in the western woods, no longer agitated by the breeze; when you can only see a straggler or two of the feathered tribe hastening to join its mate, already at its roosting-place, then it is that the Goatsucker comes out of the forest, where it has sat all day long in slumbering ease, unmindful of the gay and busy scenes around it. Its eyes are too delicately formed to bear the light, and thus it is forced to shun the flaming face of day, and wait in patience till night invites him to partake of the pleasures her dusky presence brings. The harmless, unoffending goatsucker, from the time of Aristotle down to the present day, has been in disgrace with man. Father has handed down to son, and author to author that this nocturnal thief subsists by milking the flocks. Poor injured little bird of night, how sadly hast thou suffered, and how foul a stain has inattention to facts put upon thy character! Thou hast never robbed man of any part of his property, nor deprived the kid of a drop of milk. When the moon shines bright, you may have a fair opportunity of examining the goatsucker. You will see it close by the cows, goats, and sheep, jumping up every now and then, under their bellies. Approach a little nearer, he is not shy, "he fears no danger, for he knows no sin." See how the nocturnal flies are tormenting the herd, and with what dexterity he springs up and catches them, as fast as they alight on the belly, legs, and udder of the animals. Observe how quiet they stand, and how sensible they seem of his good offices, for they neither strike at him, nor hit him with their tail, nor tread on him, nor try to drive him away as an uncivil intruder. Were you to dissect him, and inspect his stomach, you would find no milk there. It is full of the flies which have been annoying the herd. The prettily mottled plumage of the goatsucker, like that of the owl, wants the lustre which is observed in the feathers of the birds of day. This at once marks him as a lover of the pale moon's nightly beams. There are nine species here. The largest appears nearly the size of the English wood-owl. Its cry is so remarkable, that having once heard it you will never forget it. When night reigns over these immeasurable wilds, whilst lying in your hammock, you will hear this goatsucker lamenting like one in deep distress. A stranger would never conceive it to be the cry of a bird. He would say it was the departing voice of a midnight-murdered victim, or the last wailing of Niobe for her poor children, before she was turned into stone. Suppose yourself in hopeless sorrow, begin with a high loud note, and pronounce, "ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha," each note lower and lower, till the last is scarcely heard, pausing a moment or two betwixt every note, and you will have some idea of the moaning of the largest goatsucker in Demerara. You will forgive the poor Indian of Guiana for this. He knows no better; he has nobody to teach him. But shame it is, that in our own civilized country, the black cat and broomstaff should be considered as conductors to and from the regions of departed spirits. WHITE-HEADED MAROUDI. Many years ago I knew poor harmless Mary; old age had marked her strongly, just as he will mark you and me, should we arrive at her years and carry the weight of grief which bent her double. The old men of the village said she had been very pretty in her youth; and nothing could be seen more comely than Mary when she danced on the green. He who had gained her heart, left her for another, less fair, though richer than Mary. From that time she became sad and pensive; the rose left her cheek, and she was never more seen to dance round the May-pole on the green: her expectations were blighted; she became quite indifferent to everything around her, and seemed to think of nothing but how she could best attend her mother, who was lame, and not long for this life. Her mother had begged a black kitten from some boys who were going to drown it, and in her last illness she told Mary to be kind to it for her sake. About the same hour, and sometimes even at mid night, you hear two species of Maam, or Tinamou, send forth their long and plaintive whistle from the depth of the forest. The flesh of both is delicious. The largest is plumper, and almost equals in size the black cock of Northumberland. The quail is said to be here, though rare. The Hannaquoi, which some have compared to the pheasant, though with little reason, is very common. Here are also two species of the Powise, or Hocco, and two of the small wild turkeys called Maroudi; they feed on the ripe fruits of the forest, and are found in all directions in these extensive wilds. You will admire the Horned Screamer as a stately and majestic bird: he is almost the size of the turkey cock; on his head is a long slender horn, and each wing is armed with a strong, sharp, triangular sour an inch long. Sometimes you will fall in with flocks of two or three hundred Waracabas, or Trumpeters, called so from the singular noise they produce. Their no TRUMPETER. If, kind and gentle reader, thou shouldst ever visit these regions with an intention to examine their productions, perhaps the few observations contained in these Wanderings may be of service to thee; excuse their brevity: more could have been written, and each bird more particularly described, but it would have been pressing too hard upon thy time and patience. When age and want had destroyed the symmetry of Mary's fine form, the village began to consider her as one who had dealings with spirits; her cat confirmed the suspicion. If a cow died, or a villager wasted away with an unknown complaint, Mary and her cat had it to answer for. Her broom sometimes served her for a walking-stick; and if ever she supported her tottering frame with it as far as the Maypole, where once, in youthful bloom and beauty, she had attracted the eyes of all, the boys would surround Soon after arriving in these parts, thou wilt find her, and make sport of her, while her cat had neither that the species here enumerated are only as a handful friend nor safety beyond the cottage wall. Nobody from a well-stored granary. Nothing has been said considered it cruel or uncharitable to torment a witch; of the Eagles, the Falcons, the Hawks, and Shrikes; and it is probable, long before this, that cruelty, old nothing of the different species of Vultures, the king age, and want, have worn her out, and that both of which is very handsome, and seems to be the only poor Mary and her cat have ceased to be. bird which claims regal honours from a surrounding tribe. It is a fact beyond all dispute, that when the scent of carrion has drawn together hundreds of the common vultures, they all retire from the carcass as Would you wish to pursue the different species of game, well stored and boundless is your range in Four other species of the goatsucker articulate some | Demerara. Here no one dogs you, and afterwards soon as the King of the Vultures makes his appearance. When his majesty has satisfied the cravings of his royal stomach with the choicest bits from the most stinking and corrupted parts, he generally retires to a neighbouring tree, and then the common vultures return in crowds to gobble down his leavings. The Indians, as well as the whites, have observed this; for when one of them, who has learned a little English, sees the king, and wishes you to have a proper notion of the bird, he says, "There is the governor of the carrion crows. Now, the Indians have never heard of a personage in Demerara higher than that of governor; and the colonists, through a common mistake, call the vultures carrion crows. Hence the Indian, in order to express the dominion of this bird over the common vultures, tells you he is governor of the carrion crows. The Spaniards have also observed it; for, through all the Spanish Main, he is called Rey de Zamuros, King of the Vultures. The many species of Owls, too, have not been noticed; and no mention made of the Columbine tribe. The prodigious variety of Water Fowl on the sea-shore has been but barely hinted at. There, and on the borders and surface of the inland waters, in the marshes and creeks, besides the flamingos, scarlet curlews, and spoonbills, already mentioned, will be found Greenish-Brown Curlews, Sandpipers, Rails, Coots, Gulls, Pelicans, Jabirus, Nandapoas, Crabiers, Snipes, Plovers, Ducks, Geese, Cranes, and Anhingas; most of them in vast abundance; some frequenting only the sea-coast, others only the interior, according to their different natures; all worthy the attention of the naturalist, all worthy of a place in the cabinet of the curious. Should thy comprehensive genius not confine itself to birds alone, grand is the appearance of other objects all around. Thou art in a land rich in botany and mineralogy, rich in zoology and entomology. Animation will glow in thy looks, and exercise will bace thy frame in vigour. The very time of thy absence from the tables of heterogeneous luxury will be profitable to thy stomach, perhaps already sorely drenched with Londo-Parisian sauces, and a new stock of health will bring thee an appetite to relish the wholesome food of the chase; never-failing sleep will wait on thee at the time she comes to soothe the rest of animated nature; and, ere the sun's rays appear in the horizon, thou wilt spring from thy hammock fresh as the April lark. Be convinced also, that the dangers and difficulties which are generally supposed to accompany the traveller in his journey through distant regions, are not half so numerous or dreadful as they are commonly thought to be. The youth who incautiously reels into the lobby of Drury-lane, after leaving the table sacred to the god of wine, is exposed to more certain ruin, sickness, and decay, than he who wanders a whole year in the wilds of Demerara. But this will never be believed; because the disasters arising from dissipation are so common and frequent in civilized life, that man becomes quite habituated to them; and sees daily victims sink into the tomb long before their time, without ever once taking alarm at the causes which precipitated them headlong into it. But the dangers which a traveller exposes himself to in foreign parts are novel, out of the way things to a man at home. The remotest apprehension of meeting a tremendous tiger, of being carried off by a flying dragon, or having his bones picked by a famished cannibal: oh, that makes him shudder. It sounds in his ears like the bursting of a bomb-shell. Thank Heaven, he is safe by his own fire-side! Prudence and resolution ought to be the traveller's constant companions. The first will cause him to avoid a number of snares which he will find in the path as he journeys on; and the second will always lend a hand to assist him, if he has unavoidably got entangled in them. The little distinctions which have been shown him at his own home ought to be forgotten when he travels over the world at large; for strangers know nothing of his former merits, and it is necessary that they should witness them before they pay him the tribute which he was wont to receive within his own doors. Thus, to be kind and affable to those we meet, to mix in their amusements, to pay a compliment or two to their manners and customs, to respect their elders, to give a little to their distressed and needy, and to feel, as it were, at home amongst them, is the sure way to enable you to pass merrily on, and to find other comforts as sweet and palatable as those which you were accustomed to partake of amongst your friends and acquaintance in your own native land. will now ascend in fancy on Icarian wing, and take a view of Guiana in general. See an immense plain! betwixt two of the largest rivers in the world, level as a bowling-green, save at Cayenne, and covered with trees along the coast quite to the Atlantic wave, except where the plantations make a little vacancy amongst the foliage. Though nearly in the centre of the torrid zone, the sun's rays are not so intolerable as might be imagined, on account of the perpetual verdure and refreshing north-east breeze. See what numbers of broad and rapid rivers intersect it in their journey to the ocean, and that not a stone or a pebble is to be found on their banks, or in any part of the country, till your eye catches the hills in the interior. How beautiful and magnificent are the lakes in the heart of the forests, and how charming the forests themselves, for miles after miles on each side of the rivers! How extensive appear the savannas or natural meadows, teeming with innumerable herds of cattle, where the Portuguese and Spaniards are settled, but desert as Saara, where the English and Dutch claim dominion; How gradually the face of the country rises! See the sand-hills all clothed in wood first emerging from the level, then hills a little higher, rugged with bold and craggy rocks, peeping out from amongst the most luxuriant timber. Then come plains, and dells, and far-extending valleys, arrayed in richest foliage; and beyond them, mountains piled on mountains, some bearing prodigious forests, others of bleak and barren aspect. Thus your eye wanders on, over scenes of varied loveliness and grandeur, till it rests on the stupendous pinnacles of the long-continued Cordilleras de los Andes, which rise in towering majesty, and command all America. How fertile must the low-lands be, from the accumulation of fallen leaves and trees for centuries! How propitious the swamps and slimy beds of the rivers, heated by a downward sun, to the amazing growth of alligators, serpents, and innumerable insects! How inviting the forests to the feathered tribes, where you see buds, blossoms, green and ripe fruit, full grown and fading leaves, all on the same tree! How secure the wild beasts may rove in endless mazes! Perhaps those mountains too, which appear so bleak and naked, as if quite neglected, are, like Potosi, full of precious metals. Let us now return the pinions we borrowed from Icarus, and prepare to bid farewell to the wilds. The time allotted to these Wanderings is drawing fast to a close. Every day for the last six months has been employed in paying close attention to natural history in the forests of Demerara. Above two hundred specimens of the finest birds have been collected, and a pretty just knowledge formed of their haunts and economy. From the time of leaving England, in March, 1816, to the present day, nothing has intervened to arrest a fine flow of health, saving a quartan ague, which did not tarry, but fled as suddenly as it appared. passing down the streets, in slow and inute procession to their last resting-place. After staying a few days in the town, I went up the Demerara to the former habitation of my worthy friend, Mr. Edmonstone, in Mibiri creek. The house had been abandoned for some years. On arriving at the hill, the remembrance of scenes long past and gone naturally broke in upon the mind. All was changed; the house was in ruins, and gradually sinking under the influence of the sun and rain; the roof had nearly fallen in; and the room where once governors and generals had caroused, was now dismantled, and tenanted by the vampire. You would have said, "Tis now the vampire's bleak abode, On the outside of the house, nature had nearly reassumed her ancient right: a few straggling fruittrees were still discernible amid the varied hue of the near approaching forest; they seemed like strangers lost, and bewildered, and unpitied, in a foreign land, destined to linger a little longer, and then sink down for ever. I hired some negroes from a woodcutter in another creek to repair the roof; and then the house, or at least what remained of it, became head-quarters for natural history. The frogs, and here and there a snake, received that attention which the weak in this world generally experience from the strong, and which the law commonly denominates an ejectment. But here, neither the frogs nor serpents were illtreated; they sallied forth, without buffet or rebuke, to choose their place of residence; the world was all before them. The owls went away of their own accord, preferring to retire to a hollow tree rather than to associate with their new landlord. The bats and vampires stayed with me, and went in and out as usual. But It was upon this hill in former days that I first tried to teach John, the black slave of my friend Mr. Edmonstone, the proper way to do birds. John had poor abilities, and it required much time and patience to drive anything into him. Some years after this his master took him to Scotland, where, becoming free, John left him, and got employed in the Glasgow, and then the Edinburgh museum. Mr. Robert Edmonstone, nephew to the above gentleman, had a fine mulatto capable of learning anything. He requested me to teach him the art." I did so. He was docile and active, and was with me all the time in the forest; I left him there to keep up this new art of preserving birds, and to communicate it to others. Here then I fixed my head-quarters, in the ruins of this once gay and hospitable house. Close by, in a little hut, which in times long passed had served for a store to keep provisions in, there lived a coloured man and his wife, And now I take leave of thee, kind and gentle by name Backer. Many a kind turn they did to me; reader. The new mode of preserving birds, hereto- and I was more than once of service to them and their fore promised thee, shall not be forgotten. The plan children, by bringing to their relief in time of sickness is already formed in imagination, and can be penned what little knowledge I had acquired of medicine. down during the passage across the Atlantic. If the I would here, gentle reader, wish to draw thy few remarks in these Wanderings shall have any attention, for a few minutes, to physic, raiment, and weight in inciting thee to sally forth and explore the diet. Shouldst thou ever wander through these remote vast and well-stored regions of Demerara, I have and dreary wilds, forget not to carry with thee bark, gained my end. Adieu. laudanum, calomel, and jalap, and the lancet. There are no druggist shops here, nor sons of Galen to apply to in time of need. I never go encumbered with many clothes. A thin flannel waistcoat under a check shirt, a pair of trousers, and a hat, were all my wardrobe; shoes and stockings I seldom had on. In dry weather they would have irritated the feet, and retarded me in the chase of wild beasts; and in the rainy season they would have kept me in a perpetual state of damp and moisture. I eat moderately, and never drink wine, spirits, or fermented liquors in any climate. This abstemiousness has ever proved a faithful friend; it carried me triumphant through the epidemia at Malaga, where death made such havoc about the beginning of the present century; and it has since befriended me in many a fit of sickness, brought on by exposure to the noonday sun, to the dews of night, to the pelting shower and unwholesome food. April 6, 1817. CHARLES WATERTON. THIRD JOURNEY. CHAPTER I. "Desertosque videre locos, littusque relictum." GENTLE reader, after staying a few months in England, I strayed across the Alps and the Apennines, and returned home, but could not tarry. Guiana still whispered in my ear, and seemed to invite me once more to wander through her distant forests. Shouldst thou have a leisure hour to read what follows, I pray thee pardon the frequent use of that unwelcome monosyllable I. It could not well be avoided, as will be seen in the sequel. In February, 1820, I sailed from the Clyde, on board the Glenbervie, a fine West-Indiaman. She was driven to the northwest of Ireland, and had to contend with a foul and wintry wind for above a fortnight. At last it changed, and we had a pleasant passage across the Atlantic. Sad and mournful was the story we heard on entering the river Demerara. The yellow fever had swept off numbers of the old inhabitants, and the mortal remains of many a new comer were daily Perhaps it will be as well, here, to mention a fever which came on, and the treatment of it; it may possibly be of use to thee, shouldst thou turu wanderer in the tropics: a word or two also of a wound I got in the forest, and then we will say no more of the little accidents which sometimes occur, and attend solely to natural history. We shall have an opportunity of seeing the wild animals in their YELLOW FEVER-SEVERE ACCIDENT AND RECOVERY-HISTORY OF THE SLOTH. native haunts, undisturbed and unbroken in upon by man. We shall have time and leisure to look more closely at them, and probably rectify some errors which, for want of proper information or a near observance, have crept into their several histories. cold water during the day, and at night again ap. "I, pedes quo te rapiunt et auræ " It was in the month of June, when the sun was within a few days of Cancer, that I had a severe attack of fever. There had been a deluge of rain, accompanied with tremendous thunder and lightning, and very little sun. Nothing could exceed the Now, this contus was a tough light pole, eight feet dampness of the atmosphere. For two or three days long, on the end of which was fixed an old bayonet. I had been in a kind of twilight state of health, I never went into the canoe without it; it was of great neither ill nor what you may call well; I yawned use in starting the beasts and snakes out of the hollow and felt weary without exercise, and my sleep was trees, and, in case of need, was an excellent defence. merely slumber. This was the time to have taken In 1819, I had the last conversation with Sir Joseph medicine; but I neglected to do so, though I had Banks. I saw with sorrow that death was going to just been reading, "O navis referent in mare te novi rob us of him. We talked much of the present mode fluctus, O quid agis? fortiter occupa portum." I adopted by all museums in stuffing quadr peds, and awoke at midnight; a cruel headache, thirst, and condemned it as being very imperfect: still we could pain in the small of the back, informed me what the not find out a better way; and at last concluded, case was. Had Chiron himself been present, he that the lips and nose ought to be cut off, and recould not have told me more distinctly that I was placed with wax; it being impossible to make those going to have a tight brush of it, and that I ought parts appear like life, as they shrink to nothing, and to meet it with becoming fortitude. I dozed, and render the stuffed specimens in the different museums woke, and startled, and then dozed again, and sud-horrible to look at. The defects in the legs and denly awoke, thinking I was falling down a precipice. feet would not be quite so glaring, being covered The return of the bats to their diurnal retreat, with hair. which was in the thatch above my hammock, informed me that the sun was now fast approaching to the eastern horizon. I arose, in languor and in pain, the pulse at one hundred and twenty. I took ten grains of calomel and a scruple of jalap, and drank during the day large draughts of tea, weak and warm. The physic did its duty; but there was no remission of fever or headache, though the pain of the back was less acute. I was saved the trouble of keeping the room cool, as the wind beat in at every quarter. At five in the evening the pulse had risen to one hundred and thirty, and the headache almost insupportable, especially on looking to the right or left. I now opened a vein, and made a large orifice, to allow the blood to rush out rapidly; I closed it after losing sixteen ounces. I then steeped my feet in warm water, and got into the hammock. After bleeding, the pulse fell to ninety, and the head was much relieved; but during the night, which was very restless, the pulse rose again to one hundred and twenty, and at times the headache was distressing. I relieved the headache from time to time by applying cold water to the temples, and holding a wet handkerchief there. The next morning the fever ran very high, and I took five more grains of calomel and ten of jalap, determined, whatever might be the case, this should be the last dose of calomel. About two o'clock in the afternoon the fever remitted, and a copious perspiration came on; there was no more headache, nor thirst, nor pain in the back, and the following night was comparatively a good one. The next morning I swallowed a large dose of castor-oil: it was genuine, for Louisa Backer had made it from the seeds of the trees which grew near the door. I was now entirely free from all symptoms of fever, or apprehensions of a return; and the morning after I began to take bark, and continued it for a fortnight. This put all to rights. I had paid great attention to this subject for above fourteen years; still it would not do; however, one night while I was lying in the hammock, and harping on the string on which hung all my solicitude, I hit upon the proper mode by inference; it appeared clear to me that it was the only true way of going to work, and ere I closed my eyes in sleep, I was able to prove to myself that there could not be any other way that would answer. I tried it the next day, and succeeded according to expectation. By means of this process, which is very simple, we can now give every feature back again to the animal's face, after it has been skinned; and when necessary, stamp grief, or pain, or pleasure, or rage, or mildness upon it. But more of this hereafter. Let us now turn our attention to the Sloth, whose native haunts have hitherto been so little known, and probably little looked into. Those who have written on this singular animal, have remarked that he is in a perpetual state of pain, that he is proverbially slow in his movements, that he is a prisoner in space, and that as soon as he has consumed all the leaves of the tree upon which he had mounted, he rolls himself up in the form of a ball, and then falls to the ground. This is not the case. If the naturalists who have written the history of the sloth had gone into the wilds, in order to examine his haunts and economy, they would not have drawn the foregoing conclusions; they would have learned, that though all other quadrupeds may be described while resting upon the ground, the sloth is an exception to this rule, and that his history must be written while he is in the tree. 29 However, we are now in his own domain. Man but little frequents these thick and noble forests, which extend far and wide on every side of us. This, then, is the proper place to go in quest of the sloth. We will first take a near view of him. By obtaining a knowledge of his anatomy, we shall be enabled to account for his movements hereafter, when we see him in his proper haunts. His fore-legs, or, more correctly speaking, his arms, are apparently much too long, while his hind-legs are very short, and look as if they could be bent almost to the shape of a corkscrew. Both the fore and hind-legs, by their form, and by the manner in which they are joined to the body, are quite incapacitated from acting in a perpendicular direction, or in supporting it on the earth, as the bodies of other quadrupeds are supported, by their legs. Hence, when you place him on the floor, his belly touches the ground. Now, granted that he supported himself on his legs like other animals, nevertheless he would be in pain, for he has no-soles to his feet, and his claws are very sharp and long, and curved; so that, were his body supported by his feet it would be by their extremities, just as your body would be, were you to throw yourself on all fours and try to support it on the ends of your toes and fingers-a trying position. Were the floor of glass, or of a polished surface, the sloth would actually be quite stationary; but as the ground is generally rough, with little protuberances upon it, such as stones, or roots of grass, &c., this just suits the sloth, and he moves his fore-legs in all directions, in order to find something to lay hold of; and when he has succeeded, he pulls himself forward, and is thus enabled to travel onwards, but at the same time in so tardy and awkward a manner, as to acquire him the naine of Sloth. Indeed his looks and his gestures evidently betray his uncomfortable situation; and as a sigh every now and then escapes him, we may be entitled to conclude that he is actually in pain. Some years ago I kept a sloth in my room for several months. I often took him out of the house and placed him upon the ground, in order to have an opportunity of observing his motions. If the ground were rough, he would pull himself forwards, by means of his fore-legs, at a pretty good pace; and he invariably immediately shaped his course towards the nearest tree. But if I put him upon a smooth and well-trodden part of the road, he appeared to be in trouble and distress; his favourite abode was the back of a chair: and after getting all his legs in a line upon the topmost part of it, he would hang there for hours together, and often with a low and inward cry, would seem to invite me to take notice of him. The sloth, in its wild state, spends its whole life in trees, and never leaves them but through force or by accident. An all-ruling Providence has ordered man to tread on the surface of the earth, the eagle to soar in the expanse of the skies, and the monkey and the squirrel to inhabit the trees: still these may change their relative situations without feeling much inconvenience: but the sloth is doomed to spend his whole life in the trees; and, what is more extraordinary, not upon the branches, like the squirrel and the monkey, but under them. He moves suspended from the branch, he rests suspended from it, and he sleeps suspended from it. To enable him to do this, he must have a very different formation from that of any other known quadruped. This singular animal is destined by nature to be produced, to live and to die in the trees; and to do justice to him, naturalists must examine him in this his upper element. He is a scarce and solitary animal, and being good food, he is never allowed to escape. He inhabits remote and gloomy forests, The story of the wound I got in the forest, and the where snakes take up their abode, and where cruelly mode of cure, are very short.—I had pursued a red- stinging ants and scorpions, and swamps, and innuheaded woodpecker for above a mile in the forest, merable thorny shrubs and bushes, obstruct the steps without being able to get a shot at it. Thinking more of civilised man. Were you to draw your own conof the woodpecker, as I ran along, than of the way clusions from the descriptions which have been given Hence, his seemingly bungled conformation is at Lefore me, I trod upon a little hardwood stump, which of the sloth, you would probably suspect, that no once accounted for; and in lieu of the sloth leading was just about an inch or so above the ground; it naturalist has actually gone into the wilds with the a painful life, and entailing a melancholy and miserentered the hollow part of my foot, making a deep fixed determination to find him out and examine his able existence on its progeny, it is but fair to surmise and lacerated wound there. It had brought me to haunts and see whether nature has committed any that it just enjoys life as much as any other animal, the ground, and there I lay till a transitory fit of blunder in the formation of this extraordinary creature, and that its extraordinary formation and singular sickness went off. 1 allowed it to bleed freely, and which appears to us so forlorn and miserable, so ill habits are but further proofs to engage us to admire on reaching head-quarters, washed it well and probed put together, and so totally unfit to enjoy the blessings the wonderful works of Omnipotence. it, to feel if any foreign body was left within it. which have been so bountifully given to the rest of It must be observed, that the sloth does not hang Being satisfied that there was none, I brought the animated nature; for, as it has formerly been re-head-downwards like the vampire. edges of the wound together, and then put a piece of marked, he has no soles to his feet, and he is evidently he supports himself from a branch parallel to the lint on it, and over that a very large poultice, which ill at ease when he tries to move on the ground, and earth. He first seizes the branch with one arm, and was changed morning, noon, and night. Luckily, it is then that he looks up in your face with a coun- then with the other; and after that, brings up both Backer had a cow or two upon the hill: now as heat tenance that says, Have pity on me, for I am in his legs, one by one, to the same branch; so that all and moisture are the two principal virtues of a poul- pain and sorrow." four are in a line: he seems perfectly at rest in this tice, nothing could produce these two qualities better It mostly happens that Indians and Negroes are position. Now, had he a tail, he would be at a than fresh cow-dung boiled: had there been no cows the people who catch the sloth, and bring it to the loss to know what to do with it in this position: there, I could have made it with boiled grass and white man: hence it may be conjectured that the were he to draw it up within his legs, it would leaves. I now took entirely to the hammock, placing erroneous accounts we have hitherto had of the sloth, interfere with them; and were he to let it hang the foot higher than the knee; this prevented it from have not been penned down with the slightest inten- down, it would become the sport of the winds. throbbing, and was, indeed, the only position in which tion to mislead the reader, or give him an exaggerated Thus his deficiency of tail is a benefit to him; it is I could be at ease. When the inflammation was history, but that these errors have naturally arisen merely an apology for a tail, scarcely exceeding an completely subdued, I applied a wet cloth to the by examining the sloth in those places where nature inch and a half in length. wound, and every now and then steeped the foot in never intended that ne should be exhibited. When asleep, I observed, when he was climbing, he never used his arms both together, but first one and then the other, and so on alternately. There is a singularity in his hair, different from that of all other animals, and, I believe, hitherto unnoticed by naturalists; his hair is thick and coarse at the extremity, and gradually tapers to the root, where it becomes fine as a spider's web. His fur has so much the hue of the moss which grows on the branches of the trees, that it is very difficult to make him out when he is at rest. The male of the three-toed sloth has a longitudinal bar of very fine black hair on his back, rather lower than the shoulder-blades; on each side of this black bar there is a space of yellow hair, equally fine; it has the appearance of being pressed into the body, and looks exactly as if it had been singed. If we examine the anatomy of his fore-legs, we shall immediately perceive by their firm and muscular texture, how very capable they are of supporting the pendent weight of his body, both in climbing and at rest; and, instead of pronouncing them a bungled composition, as a celebrated naturalist has done, we shall consider them as remarkably well calculated to perform their extraordinary functions. As the sloth is an inhabitant of forests within the tropics, where the trees touch each other in the greatest profusion, there seems to be no reason why he should confine himself to one tree alone for food, and entirely strip it of its leaves. During the many years I have ranged the forests, I have never seen a tree in such a state of nudity; indeed, I would hazard a conjecture, that, by the time the animal had finished the last of the old leaves, there would be a new crop on the part of the tree he had stripped first, ready for him to begin again, so quick is the process of vegetation in these countries. There is a saying amongst the Indians, that when the wind blows, the sloth begins to travel. In calm weather he remains tranquil, probably not liking to cling to the brittle extremity of the branches, lest they should break with him in passing from one tree to another; but as soon as the wind rises, the branches of the neighbouring trees become interwoven, and then the sloth seizes hold of them, and pursues his journey in safety. There is seldom an entire day of calm in these forests. The trade-wind generally sets in about ten o'clock in the morning, and thus the sloth may set off after breakfast, and get a considerable way before dinner. He travels at a good round pace; and were you to see him pass from tree to tree, as I have done, you would never think of calling him a sloth. Thus, it would appear that the different histories we have of this quadruped are erroneous on two accounts; first, that the writers of them deterred by difficulties and local annoyances, have not paid sufficient attention to him in his native haunts; and secondly, they have described him in a situation in which he was never intended by nature to cut a figure; I mean on the ground. The sloth is as much at a loss to proceed on his journey upon a smooth and level floor, as a man would be who had to walk a mile in stilts upon a line of feather beds. One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I saw a large two-toed sloth on the ground upon the bank; how he had got there nobody could tell the Indian said he had never surprised a sloth in such a situation before he would hardly have come there to drink, for both above and below the place, the branches of the trees touched the water, and afforded him an easy and safe access to it. Be this as it may, though the trees were not above twenty yards from him, he could not make his way through the sand time enough to escape before we landed. As soon as we got up to him he threw himself upon his back, and defended himself in gallant style with his fore-legs. "Come, poor fellow," said I to him, "if thou hast got into a hobble to-day, thou shalt not suffer for it: I'll take no advantage of thee in misfortune; the forest is large enough both for thee and me to rove in: go thy ways up above, and enjoy thyself in these endless wilds; it is more than probable thou wilt never have another interview with man. So fare thee well." On saying this, I took a long stick which was lying there, held it for him to hook on, and then conveyed him to a high and stately mora. He ascended with wonderful rapidity, and in about a minute he was almost at the top of the tree. He now went off in a side direction, and caught hold of the branch of a neighbouring tree; he then proceeded towards the heart of the forest. I stood looking on, lost in amazement at his singular mode of progress. I followed him with my eye till the intervening branches closed in betwixt then I lost sight for ever of the two-toed going to add, that I never saw a sloth take to his heels in such earnest; but the expression | figure of this animal, in books of natural history, or inwill not do, for the sloth has no heels. spect a stuffed specimen in the best museum, and you That which naturalists have advanced of his being will see that the fore-claws are just in the same forward so tenacious of life is perfectly true. I saw the heart attitude as those of a dog, or a common bear when of one beat for half an hour after it was taken out of he walks or stands. But this is a distorted and the body. The wourali-poison seems to be the only unnatural position; and in life, would be a painful thing that will kill it quickly. On reference to a and intolerable attitude for the ant-bear. The length former part of these Wanderings, it will be seen that a and curve of his claws cannot admit of such a poisoned arrow killed the sloth in about ten minutes. position. When he walks or stands, his feet have So much for this harmless, unoffending animal. He somewhat the appearance of a club-hand. He goes holds a conspicuous place in the catalogue of the entirely on the outer side of his fore-feet, which are animals of the new world. Though naturalists have quite bent inwards; the claws collected into a point, inade no mention of what follows, still it is not less and going under the foot. In this position he is true on that account. The sloth is the only quadruped quite at ease; while his long claws are disposed of in known, which spends its whole life from the branch a manner to render them harmless to him, and are of a tree, suspended by his feet. I have paid un- prevented from becoming dull and worn, like those common attention to him in his native haunts. The of the dog, which would inevitably be the case, did monkey and squirrel will seize a branch with their their points come in actual contact with the ground; fore-feet, and pull themselves up, and rest or run upon for his claws have not that retractible power which is it; but the sloth, after seizing it, still remains sus- given to animals of the feline species by which they pended, and suspended moves along under the branch, are enabled to preserve the sharpness of their claws till he can lay hold of another. Whenever I have on the most flinty path. A slight inspection of the seen him in his native woods, whether at rest, or fore-feet of the ant-bear, will immediately convince asleep, or on his travels, I have always observed that you of the mistake artists and naturalists have fallen he was suspended from the branch of a tree. When into, by putting his fore-feet in the same position as his form and anatomy are attentively considered, it those of other quadrupeds; for you will perceive that, will appear evident that the sloth cannot be at ease the whole outer side of his foot is not only deprived in any situation, where his body is higher, or above of hair, but is hard and callous; proof positive of its his feet. We will now take our leave of him. being in perpetual contact with the ground. Now, In the far-extending wilds of Guiana, the traveller on the contrary, the inner side of the bottom of his will be astonished at the immense quantity of Ants foot is soft and rather hairy. which he perceives on the ground and in the trees. They have nests in the branches, four or five times as large as that of the rook; and they have a covered way from them to the ground. In this covered way thousands are perpetually passing and repassing; and if you destroy part of it, they turn to, and immediately repair it. Other species of ants again have no covered way; but travel, exposed to view, upon the surface of the earth. You will sometimes see a string of these ants a mile long, each carrying in its mouth to its nest a green leaf, the size of a sixpence. It is wonderful to observe the order in which they move, and with what pains and labour they surmount the obstructions of the path. There is another singularity in the anatomy of the ant-bear, I believe, as yet unnoticed in the page of natural history. He has two very large glands situated below the root of the tongue. From these is emitted a glutinous liquid, with which his long tongue is lubricated when he puts it into the ants' nests. These glands are of the same substance as those found in the lower jaw of the woodpecker. The secretion from them, when wet, is very clammy and adhesive, but on being dried it loses these qualities, and you can pulverize it betwixt your finger and thumb; so that, in dissection, if any of it has got upon the fur of the animal, or the feathers of the bird, allow it to dry there, and then it may be removed without leaving the least stain behind. The ant-bear is a pacific animal. He is never the first to begin the attack. His motto may be, "Noli me tangere." As his habits and his haunts differ materially from those of every other animal in the forest, their interests never clash, and thus he might live to a good old age, and die at last in peace, were it not that his flesh is good food. On this account the Indian wages perpetual war against him, and as he cannot escape by flight, he falls an easy prey to the poisoned arrow, shot from the Indians bow at a distance. If ever he be closely attacked by dogs, he immediately throws himself on his back, and if he be fortunate enough to catch hold of his enemy with his tremendous claws, the invader is sure to pay for his rashness with the loss of life. The ants have their enemies, as well as the rest of animated nature. Amongst the foremost of these stand the three species of Ant-bears. The smallest is not much larger than a rat; the next is nearly the size of a fox; and the third a stout and powerful animal, measuring about six feet from the snout to the end of the tail. He is the most inoffensive of all animals, and never injures the property of man. He is chiefly found in the inmost recesses of the forest, and seems partial to the low and swampy parts near creeks, where the troely-tree grows. There he goes up and down in quest of ants, of which there is never the least scarcity; so that he soon obtains a sufficient supply of food, with very little trouble. He cannot travel fast; man is superior to him in speed. Without swiftness to enable him to escape We will now take a view of the vampire. As there from his enemies, without teeth, the possession of was a free entrance and exit to the vampire in the which would assist him in self-defence, and without loft where I slept, I had many a fine opportunity of the power of burrowing in the ground, by which he paying attention to this nocturnal surgeon. He does might conceal himself from his pursuers, he still is not always live on blood. When the moon shone capable of ranging through these wilds in perfect bright, and the fruit of the banana-tree was ripe, I safety; nor does he fear the fatal pressure of the could see him approach and eat it. He would also serpent's fold, or the teeth of the famished jaguar. bring into the loft, from the forest, a green round Nature has formed his fore-legs wonderfully thick, fruit, something like the wild guava, and about the and strong, and muscular, and armed his feet with size of a nutmeg. There was something also, in the three tremendous sharp and crooked claws. When-blossom of the sawarri nut-tree, which was grateful to ever he seizes an animal with these formidable him; for on coming up Waratilla creek, in a moonweapons, he hugs it close to his body, and keeps it there till it dies through pressure, or through want of food. Nor does the ant-bear, in the meantime, suffer much from loss of aliment, as it is a well-known fact, that he can go longer without food than, perhaps, any other animal, except the land-tortoise. His skin is of a texture that perfectly resists the bite of a dog; his hinder parts are protected by thick and shaggy hair, while his immense tail is large enough to cover his whole body. The Indians have a great dread of coming in contact with the ant-bear; and after disabling him in the chase, never think of approaching him till he be quite dead. It is perhaps on account of this caution, that naturalists have never yet given to the world a true and correct drawing of this singular animal, or described the peculiar position of his fore-feet when he walks or stands. If, in taking a drawing from a dead ant-bear, you judge of the position in which he stands from that of all other terrestrial animals the sloth excepted, you will be in error. Examine only a light night, I saw several vampires fluttering round the top of the sawarri-tree, and every now and then the blossoms which they had broken off fell into the water. They certainly did not drop off naturally, for on examining several of them, they appeared quite fresh and blooming. So I concluded the vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get at the incipient fruit, or to catch the insects which often take up their abode in flowers. The vampire, in general, measures about twentysix inches from wing to wing, extended, though I once killed one which measured thirty-two inches. He frequents old abandoned houses and hollow trees; and sometimes a cluster of them may be seen in the forest hanging head downwards, from the branch of a tree. Goldsmith seems to have been aware that the vam pire hangs in clusters; for in the Deserted Village, speaking of America, he says,— "And matted woods, where birds forget to sing, But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling." The vampire has a curious membrane, which rises THE VAMPIRE AND ITS HABITS-SMALL CAYMAN-DADDY QUASHI. from the nose, and gives it a very singular appearance. It has been remarked before, that there are two species of vampire in Guiana, a larger and a smaller. The larger sucks men and other animals; the smaller seems to confine himself chiefly to birds. I learnt from a gentleman, high up in the river Demerara, that he was completely unsuccessful with his fowls, on account of the small vampire. He showed me some that had been sucked the night before, and they were scarcely able to walk. there; but it was all in vain; the vampire never sucked me, and I could never account for his not doing so, for we were inhabitants of the same loft for months together. The Armadillo is very common in these forests; he burrows in the sand-hills like a rabbit. As it often takes a considerable time to dig him out of his hole, it would be a long and laborious business to attack each hole indiscriminately without knowing whether the animal were there or not. To prevent disappointSome years ago I went to the river Paumaron with ment, the Indians carefully examine the mouth of a Scotch gentleman, by name Tarbet. We hung our the hole, and put a short stick down it. Now if, on hammocks in the thatched loft of a planter's house. introducing the stick, a number of mosquitos come Next morning I heard this gentleman muttering in out, the Indians know to a certainty that the armahis hammock, and now and then letting fall an im- dillo is in it: wherever there are no mosquitos in the precation or two, just about the time he ought to hole there is no armadillo. The Indian having satishave been saying his morning prayers. "What is fied himself that the armadillo is there, by the mosthe matter, Sir," said I, softly; "is any thing amiss?" quitos which come out, he immediately cuts a long "What's the matter?" answered he, surlily; "why, and slender stick, and introduces it into the hole he the vampires have been sucking me to death." As carefully observes the line the stick takes, and then soon as there was light enough, I went to his ham- sinks a pit in the sand to catch the end of it: this mock, and saw it much stained with blood. "There," done, he puts it farther into the hole, and digs said he, thrusting his foot out of the hammock, "see another pit, and so on, until at last he comes up how these infernal imps have been drawing my life's with the armadillo, which had been making itself a blood." On examining his foot, I found the vampire passage in the sand till it had exhausted all its had tapped his great toe: there was a wound some-strength through pure exertion. I have been somewhat less than that made by a leech; the blood was times three quarters of a day in digging out one still oozing from it; I conjectured he might have lost armadillo, and obliged to sink half a dozen pits, from ten to twelve ounces of blood. Whilst examin- seven feet deep, before I got up to it. The Indians ing it, I think I put him into a worse humour by and negroes are very fond of the flesh, but I conremarking, that an European surgeon would not have sidered it strong and rank. been so generous as to have blooded him without On laying hold of the armadillo you must be making a charge. He looked up in my face, but did cautious not to come in contact with his feet: they not say a word: I saw he was of opinion that I had are armed with sharp claws, and with them he will better have spared this piece of ill-timed levity. inflict a severe wound in self-defence: when not It was not the last punishment of this good gentle-molested, he is very harmless and innocent; he man in the river Paumaron. The next night he was would put you in mind of the hare in Gay's fables, doomed to undergo a kind of ordeal unknown in Europe. There is a species of large red ant in Guiana, sometimes called Ranger, sometimes Coushie. These ants march in millions through the country, in compact order, like a regiment of soldiers; they eat up every insect in their march; and if a house obstruct their route, they do not turn out of the way, but go quite through it. Though they sting cruelly when molested, the planter is not sorry to see them in his house; for it is but a passing visit, and they destroy every kind of insect vermin that has taken shelter under his roof. Now, in the British plantations of Guiana, as well as in Europe, there is always a little temple dedicated to the goddess Cloacina. Our dinner had chiefly consisted of crabs, dressed in rich and different ways. Paumaron is famous for crabs, and strangers who go thither consider them the greatest luxury. The Scotch gentleman made a very capital dinner on crabs; but this change of diet was productive of unpleasant circumstances: he awoke in the night in that state in which Virgil describes Caleno to have been, viz. "fædissima ventris proluvies." Up he got, to verify the remark, "Whose care was never to offend, And every creature was her friend." The armadillo swims well in time of need, but does not go into the water by choice. He is very seldom seen abroad during the day; and when surprised, he is sure to be near the mouth of his hole. Every part of the armadillo is well protected by his shell, except his ears. In life, this shell is very limber, so that the animal is enabled to go at full stretch, or roll himself up into a ball, as occasion may require. On inspecting the arrangement of the shell, it puts you very much in mind of a coat of armour; indeed it is a natural coat of armour to the armadillo, and being composed both of scale and bone, it affords ample security, and has a pleasing effect. Often, when roving in the wilds, I would fall in with the Land Tortoise; he too adds another to the list of unoffending animals; he subsists on the fallen fruits of the forest. When an enemy approaches he never thinks of moving, but quietly draws himself under his shell, and there awaits his doom in patience he only seems to have two enemies who can do him any damage; one of these is the Boa ConSerius aut citius, sedem properamus ad unam." strictor: this snake swallows the tortoise alive, shell Now, unluckily for himself, and the nocturnal and all. But a boa large enough to do this is very tranquillity of the planter's house, just at that un-scarce, and thus there is not much to apprehend from fortunate hour, the Coushie Ants were passing across that quarter; the other enemy is man, who takes up the seat of Cloacina's temple; he had never dreamed the tortoise, and carries him away. Man also is of this; and so, turning his face to the door, he scarce in these never-ending wilds, and the little placed himself in the usual situation which the depredations he may commit upon the tortoise will votaries of the goddess generally take. Had a lighted be nothing, or a mere trifle. The tiger's teeth cannot match dropped upon a pound of gunpowder, as he penetrate its shell, nor can a stroke of his paws do it afterwards remarked, it could not have caused a any damage. It is of so compact and strong a nature, greater recoil. Up he jumped, and forced his way that there is a common saying, a London waggon out, roaring for help and for a light, for he was might roll over it and not break it. worried alive by ten thousand devils. The fact is, he had sat down upon an intervening body of coushie ants. Many of those which escaped being crushed to death, turned again, and, in revenge, stung the unintentional intruder most severely. The watchman had fallen asleep, and it was some time before a light could be procured, the fire having gone out; in the mean time the poor gentleman was suffering an indescribable martyrdom, and would have found himself more at home in the Augean stable than in the planter's house. I had often wished to have been once sucked by the vampire, in order that I might have it in my power to say it had really happened to me. There can be no pain in the operation, for the patient is always asleep when the vampire is sucking him; and as for the loss of a few ounces of blood, that would be a trifle in the long run. Many a night have I slept with my foot out of the hammock to tempt this winged surgeon, expecting that he would be Ere we proceed, let us take a retrospective view of the five animals just enumerated; they are all quadrupeds, and have some very particular mark, or mode of existence, different from all other animals. The sloth has four feet, but never can use them, to support his body on the earth; they want soles, which are a marked feature in the feet of other animals. The ant-bear has not a tooth in his head, still he roves fearless on, in the same forests with the jaguar and boa constrictor. The vampire duas not make use of his feet to walk, but to ` membrane, which enables him to g .etch a element where no other quadru»- up into an ed is seen. The and has neither fur, no there a straggling hair, lieu of them has re wool, nor bristles, but in are scales very uch like those of fishes. The toreived a movable shell, on which toise is ovi of hair, and is obliged to accommodate itself to a arous, entirely without any appearance she" which is quite hard and inflexible, and in no armadillo has only here and 31 IN some parts of these forests I saw the Vanilla growing luxuriantly. It creeps up the trees to the height of thirty or forty feet. I found it difficult to get a ripe pod, as the monkeys are very fond of it, and generally took care to get there before me. pod hangs from the tree in the shape of a little scabbard. Vayna is the Spanish for a scabbard, and Vanilla for a little scabbard. Hence the name. The In Mibiri creek there was a cayman of the small species, measuring about five feet in length; I saw it in the same place for months, but could never get a shot at it; for the moment I thought I was sure of it, it dived under the water before I could pull the trigger. At last I got an Indian with his bow and arrow; he stood up in the canoe with his bow ready bent, and as we drifted past the place, he sent his arrow into the cayman's eye, and killed it dead. The skin of this little species is much harder and stronger than that of the large kind: it is good food, and tastes like veal. My friend, Mr. Edmonstone, had very kindly let me have one of his old negroes, and he constantly attended me; his name was Daddy Quashi; he had a brave stomach for heterogeneous food; it could digest, and relish too, cayman, monkies, hawks, and grubs. The Daddy made three or four meals on this cayman while it was not absolutely putrid, and salted the rest. I could never get him to face a snake; the horror he betrayed on seeing one was beyond description; 1 asked him why he was so terribly alarmed; he said it was by seeing so many dogs, from time to time, killed by them. Here I had a fine opportunity of examining several species of the caprimulgus. I am fully persuaded that these innocent little birds never suck the herds; for when they approach them, and jump up at their udders, it is to catch the flies and insects there. When the moon shone bright, I would frequently go and stand within three yards of a cow, and distinctly see the caprimulgus catch the flies on its udder. On looking for them in the forest, during the day, I either found them on the ground, or else invariably sitting longitudinally on the branch of a tree, not crosswise like all other birds.. The The Wasps' or Maribuntas, are great plagues in these forests, and require the naturalist to be cautious as he wanders up and down. Some make their nests pendent from the branches; others have them fixed to the under-side of a leaf. Now in passing on, if you happen to disturb one of these, they sally forth and punish you severely. The largest kind is blue; it brings blood where its sting enters, and causes pain and inflammation enough to create a fever. Indians make a fire under the nest, and after killing or driving away the old ones, they roast the young grubs in the comb and eat them. I tried them once by way of dessert after dinner, but my stomach was offended at their intrusion; probably it was more the idea than the taste that caused the stomach to rebel. Time and experience have convinced me that there is not much danger in roving amongst snakes and wild beasts, provided only that you have self-command. You must never approach them abruptly; if so, you are sure to pay for your rashness; because the idea of self-defence is predominant in every animal, and thus the snake, to defend himself from what he considers an attack upon him, makes the intruder feel the deadly effect of his poisonous fangs. The jaguar flies at you and knocks you senseless with a stroke of his paw: whereas, if you had not come upon him too suddenly, it is ten to one but that he had lieu of disputing the path with ve snake is very poisonous, and I within two yards of hi move very soft arms, and 2 retired, in .d. The Labarri ave often approached without fear. I took care to and gently without moving my of bi- e always allowed me to have a fine view n, without showing the least inclination to make a spring at me. He would appear to keep his eye fixed on me, as though suspicious, but that was all. Sometimes I have taken a stick ten feet long, and placed it on the Labarri's back. He would then glide away without offering resistance. But when I put the end of the stick abruptly to his head, he immediately opened his mouth, flew at it, and bit it. One day, wishful to see how the poison comes out He was about eight feet long. I held him by the of the fangs of the snake, I caught a Labarri alive. neck, and my hand was so near his jaw, that h |