IGUANAS AND LIZARDS. 255 



had been left by the tide. The sight of them, hanging 

 there with gaping mouths, brought to mind the cruise 

 of Columbus in the bay of Paria, only one hundred 

 miles south of this island of Grenada. He was in 

 search of pearls, and " he had read in Pliny, that pearls 

 were generated from drops of dew which fell into the 

 mouths of oysters. There were great numbers of 

 mangroves growing within the water, with oysters 

 clinging to their branches, their mouths open — as he 

 supposed — to receive the dew which was afterwards 

 to be transformed into pearls." 



The order Sauria, the lizard order, is well repre- 

 sented in the West Indies, though in none of the 

 smaller islands between Porto Rico and Trinidad is 

 to be found that greatest of the saurians^ the alligator. 

 The Indians of Dominica, to whom I described the 

 alligator, were greatly amazed to hear of a " lizard " 

 twelve feet in length, as they had never seen one 

 larger than the iguana, which seldom attains a greater 

 length than five feet, and is as mild in disposition as 

 the alligator is sanguinary. The islands, especially 

 the shores, are teeming with lizards of every color, 

 of every variety of marking, and of all sizes. 



Especially do they love the cliffs, and if you are 

 walking through the bushes at the base of any sunny 

 precipice, or over any rocky tract, you will be startled 

 by the frequent dashes made by these reptiles across 

 your path. In a country where you must keep every 

 sense on the alert, to guard against sudden surprise 

 by serpents or poisonous insects, it is very annoying, 

 often startling, to be so frequently disturbed by these 

 active creatures. In the mountains are fewer species, 

 and they are more sluggish, but in the warm lowlands 



