FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 147 



A VISIT TO THE HIGH WOODS OF CAPARO. 



By R, R. Mole. 



QOME months ago I read a paper before this Club in which 



I attempted to describe " A Day's Insect Hunting at Caparo. "* 

 The events recorded on that occasion were only a part of the 

 incidents of an excursion which lasted over several days. This 

 paper is the result of the extension of the riumerous notes which 



1 made at the time and which I hope, even if they are not 

 so novel to many of the members as they were to me, will 

 nevertheless be not altogether uninteresting as the experiences 

 of one who is not used to hunting anything more formidable 

 than such small deer as snakes and reptiles generally, and was, 

 until that time, unacquainted with the joy of the hunter when 

 " from its covert starts the fearful prey. " 



The morning was a somewhat dark and lowering one as 

 shortly after eight o'clock, Mr. Urich and myself, under the 

 care of Messrs. Albert and Arthur Carr, with a Spaniard rejoicing 

 in the somewhat suggestive and not inappropriate name of 

 Boney, set out down the Caparo Road accompanied by a stalwart 

 cocoa contractor named Sammy, who carried the only gun with 

 the party, and an old bayonet on the end of a long stout staff. 

 The point of this curious spear was thrust into a corn husk 

 as a preventative of accidents. We were followed by a 

 pack of dogs of no particular or uniform breed, size, or colour, 

 and chiefly remarkable for their mangy coats and long legs. 

 These animals answered to the names of "Cook," "Melon," 

 "Gertrude," "Blackie," " Bull " and "Spotty." One ill-favoured 

 cur was dignified by the high sounding appellation of "Juan 

 Carlo," while the eighth and last was " Jubilee." " Cook" a sandy 

 coloured dog was the largest of the lot and was likewise in the 

 best condition. He was the most valuable — his special quarry 

 being the peccary, or quenk,f as the wild hog of the woods of 

 Trinidad is popularly named. After following the main road 

 for sometime we bore off" to the left, behind Mr. Metford's plant- 

 ation, on a track which runs through the woods in the direction 

 of Freeport and soon afterwards, first ascending a steep 

 hill, entered the High Woods. I must confess that I 

 was disappointed at the first blush. After reading the 

 wondrous descriptions of the late Canon Kingsley and others, 

 I expected much more than the gloomy forest, destitute 

 of life, by which I found myself surrounded. Dead leaves, 

 bare trunks, here and there a creeper. Above a dense mass 



•No. 2, Vol il, T.F.N. C. Journal. 

 jDicotyles tajacu, L, 



