* 
BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 615 
and fishing, and before the sun had reached the meridian, 
they returned, loaded with an ample and varied supply. 
Among different kinds of Fish, | may mention two, as par- 
ticularly delicious, the Ajamara and the Comara, the first 
being captured very early this season with animal bait, and 
the second with the fruits of Spondias lutea; it is perhaps 
the best of all eatable Fish, the Trout not excepted. Among 
the feathered game were Crea Alector, breeding at this sea- 
son, Penelopes cristata and P. Marail, Ortalida Parraqua, and 
many specimens of Psophia crepitans. The havoc which had 
been committed among the Mammalia was still greater; for 
at such a time of general flood, the animals take refuge on 
the higher spots, from whence they cannot escape. A Cer- 
vus, hitherto undescribed, with undivided horns and very 
slender legs; of Dicotylis torquatus, perhaps a dozen speci- 
mens; several Mycites Seniculus and Ateles paniscus, with 
many smaller animals belonging to Mus and Didelphis, yield- 
ed us a great variety of food. "The leader of the party, the 
honest Captain Arabi, with much politeness, and as an ac- 
knowledgment of my diplomatic character, presented me with 
part of a roasted monkey, which I, not to be outdone by a 
Savage in civility, constrained myself to accept, spite of the 
aversion that attaches to eating a creature so much like our 
own species; and truth obliged me to own that the flavour 
was excellent. Mountain cabbage and the leaves of Lobelia 
Surinamensis served us instead of greens, while the beverage 
made of palm-fruit, mentioned above, with the fruits of ano- 
ther kind of palm, constituted our dessert. 
On the 9th, a very fine morning, we departed. Before us 
rose a rather lofty mountain, the sight of which awakened in 
me many a reminiscence of the happy past, so that, lost in 
reveries of my native land, I had insensibly reached a spot 
which compelled me to give my attention to the present, and 
excited some serious fears for the future. Oddly enough, 
the Bush Negroes call this place, Gunshot, a name which will 
never be effaced from my memory. The river being forced 
into a narrower bed, between rocky shores, a defile is formed, 
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