18 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



we selected the latter, which is in many respects the better of the two. 

 We passed on our way several pretty country villas, a straggling 

 village, the inhabitants of which were chiefly East Indians and 

 Creole Africans, more country residences, and a couple of bridges 

 the first over a deep ravine and the second, known as Bagatelle 

 Bridge, over the Santa Cruz River, which sweeps in a graceful 

 curve, with many noisy cascades and whirling eddies, under it. 

 After crossing this bridge, just beyond which there is on the right 

 handsideof the road, a never failing spring of water, which renders 

 this part of the road always wet, we did not take long to arrive at our 

 journey's end, where, the usual gi'eetings having been exchanged, 

 we had a good rest and then breakfast. 



After breakfast the rain began to fall, and continued to do 

 so, at intervals, during the better part of, the day. This unfor- 

 tunately hampered my observations considerably, but taking ad- 

 vantage of every lull, I made several excursions into the cocoa 

 plantation which adjoined the residence of my host. 



Here I had fine opportunities of seeing the second staple 

 product of the Colony in all its stages, and all the best methods 

 of preparing it, but as Natural History was my hobby, I did not 

 pay much attention to cacao, and merely noticed that the trees 

 were putting out a fine lot of flowers and young fruit. On some 

 of the latter I observed clusters of black ants of considerable size, 

 and unpleasant smell when crushed. The labourers called them 

 " cacao ants," and don't attempt to remove them from the pods. 

 On some of the lai'ger pods, there were Coccidae. or plant lice as 

 well as ants, which probably is the cause of attraction of these ants. 



On my first stroll, I went to the right of the premises, and 

 into a well shaded patch of cocoa. Far above, the branches of the 

 shade trees, sturdy trunks of which wereeasilydistinguished among 

 the more slender stems of the cacao, sheltered both the cul- 

 tivation and myself from any strong sun light which there might 

 have been, but which unfortunately, there was not, for even a 

 shady cocoa piece is no shelter from a tropical shower. Besides 

 cocoa, there were also some coffee trees planted between the rows, 

 and here and there some pretty yellow banded wasps, apparently 

 less ferocious than most of their kind, had built delicate paper-like, 

 pear-shaped nests on the under side of the larger coffee leaves. 

 These nests were ingeniously fastened to the leaves in such a 

 way that although of considerable size they could not be seen by 

 anyone viewing the leaves from above. 



The trunks or stems of some of the cacao trees were covered 

 with a coating of cob-web, made by a curious insect resembling 

 an ear-wig, which resided under its delicate cover. While 

 examining the trunk of a fallen tree, a flash of bright blue 

 dazzled me, and looking up suddenly, I was lost in admiration of 



