14 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



by the heavy shower which had just fallen, froni the branches of 

 the tree above, where he may have been straying from home in 

 search of bird's nests ; he was rescued, however, after several 

 attempts at suicide, and placed on a tree where there was no 

 chance of his renewing his acquaintance with the stream. A 

 steel blue wasp* as large as a man's thumb and having yellow 

 antenna? excited our admiration, but our efforts to catch him, as he 

 crawled on some moss grown rocks, he skilfully evaded. Not so 

 fortunate was a beautiful Epeira spider which hung in the centre 

 of a web a yard in diameter. 



The river at this point is exquisitely pretty. It runs 

 down a succession of declivities into basin after basin, the rocks 

 or either side being some thirty or forty feet high. Up 

 the river the bamboos form a series of graceful arches. Lower 

 down the stream loses itself in a mass of green verdure every leaf 

 in which sparkles with drops of rain radiant with the sun-light 

 Which penetrates the foliage aboAe, but through which scarce a 

 glimpse of sky can be seen. One would hardly think it possible 

 that anything could live under the water where it rushes 

 with its greatest force over the smooth rocks in its precipitous 

 course, but even there there is life, and by putting an impedi- 

 ment in the water's way we discover underneath it, clinging to 

 the face of the rock, hundreds of dipterous larva?. As we 

 ascended the path to the road above, we encountered a pretty little 

 snakef about nine inches long, probably on the look out for what 

 ever food the rain might have brought out. Directly he was caught, 

 he, after the manner of his kind, attempted to bite, but his little 

 teeth, strong enough for the ordinary purposes of daily life, were 

 not long enough to draw blood. If even they were, it would 

 have been of no consequence as he belonged to a very harmless 

 species feeding, when young, upon small lizards and frogs, and 

 when adult upon mice and birds ; when full grown the country folk 

 call him "Machete Couesse"| the first word meaning cutlass, but 

 the interpretation of the latter, I have never been able to find out. 

 What he is called when } r oung, it is impossible to say. His coat 

 showed a pretty white, brown and black pattern, but if he had 

 not come to an untimely end he would ultimately have donned a 

 uniform of a green brown color with two light longitudinal stripes 

 between side and back — one on either side of his spine. It will be 

 noticed I am particular in describing the position of these stripes 

 as being " between the side and back." Ido so advisedly because if 



*Pepsis sp 



fHerpetodryas boddaerti or Coluber boddaerti. 



I Mr. de Suze informs me, since the above was written, that probably 

 Couesse means "grass" this may be so but is not a good description as 

 this species is found as frequently in trees as in grass. 



