46 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



portion of the property. The forest trees on a small hill had been 

 felled and afterwards burnt, preparatory to the land being taken 

 into cultivation. We ascended the rising ground and found it 

 commanded a pretty extensive view of the cultivated portions of 

 the valley, which, from this point, looks as if it is enclosed, as in 

 a ring fence, by dense forest. Near here we found a cocoa 

 beetle on the bark of a wild chataigne or chesnut, and shortly 

 afterwards the larva of another one was taken from the burrow 

 he had made in the stem of a young cocoa tree. Amongst the 

 half-burnt logs we noticed several skinkst or slippery-backed 

 lizards with pretty, inoffensive-looking heads, sparkling eyes, 

 and smooth and sleek closely-lapped scales. They were 

 far too wary to allow themselves to be caught, however, had we 

 attempted it, and so we left them to their own devices, which 

 apparently is sunning themselves on fallen logs and waging 

 incessant warfare upon insects and smaller saurians, for they are 

 incorrigible cannibals, these same pretty innocent-looking things. 

 A look at a hole from whence an armadillo had been recently taken 

 and which Mr. Carr informed us bore unmistakeable signsof having 

 been also the home of a snake — perhaps a deadly mapepire, or 

 perhaps an inoffensive Jack,} who knew, for both love holes in 

 the earth, though the former is fonder of hills than the latter, 

 who usually makes his habitat in damp localities. But it was 

 time to return as breakfast was waiting us. We soon got back 

 and after refreshing ourselves devoted the next hour or two to 

 the proper and safe disposal of the many specimens we had 

 collected. After resting we determined to return to the river 

 to secure some of the fish for the table, for although the fish are 

 poisoned, or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, made stupid, yet 

 they are perfectly good for edible purposes, which, indeed, is the 

 object of the perpetrators of this vile mode of obtaining them. 

 The water on the other hand is polluted and rendered unfit for 

 drinking purposes for days after, besides being made additionally 

 objectionable by the decomposing bodies of the fish which die 

 and are not collected by the poacher. Oar kind host was much 

 annoyed at this occurrence, as he depended for his water supply 

 on the river and he therefore made numbers of enquiries about 

 the place as to who had been guilty of the unneighbourly offence 

 of poisoning the water. This time we were accompanied by Mr. 

 Arthur Carr and several contractors, with a strong following of 

 boys, to whom, perhaps, the news was not an altogether unmixed 

 evil. In a short time a lai'ge basket full of fish was collected, 

 and we then proceeded to find out what was the agent used in 



* Steirostoma depressum. 



f Mabuia agilis. 



J Epicrates cenchris. 



