FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 149 



picking up such an utensil. In the ravine some one had been 

 catching fish. A dam of palm leaves and pieces of wood had been 

 constructed, stopping the How of the water, except by one 

 narrow aperture in which a fish pot was still lying. When the 

 forester wishes to vary his dinner of game with fish he simply 

 constructs one of these dams and places his fish pot. Then going 

 some way above he splashes and beats the water, so driving the 

 fish before him until they enter the fish pot from which escape 

 is well nigh impossible. Further on we found a sort of lean-to 

 hut made of palm leaves, and here we discovered the business 

 of these gentlemen of the forest who have within its precincts all 

 the material and implements necessary for their accommodation 

 and subsistence. The mass of fibre lying on the ground close to 

 the hut had been obtained from the terite* and is used in 

 making baskets, and particularly those large covered baskets! in 

 which country people carry their clothes. The basket maker had 

 invented an ingenious contrivance of three sticks to sit upon, 

 and had still further made his task a comfortable one by placing 

 upon his curious stool a bundle of terite fibre as a cushion. They 

 were evidently not without literary testes, these basket makers 

 of the High Woods, and they are loyal withal, for we found an 

 old London newspaper adorned with a portrait of Her Majesty, 

 which the basket maker had evidently been reading and admiring 

 just before he set out on the errand which had deprived us of the 

 pleasure of meeting him. The woods even furnish their inhabitants 

 with writing materials, as Mr. Carr practically demonstrated by 

 plucking a wild lily leaf| and with a pointed stick or thorn 

 writing on its under surface a few words which would be decipher- 

 able for days afterwards. While we were inspecting some fine 

 specimens of the cannon ball tree J the dogs which had been busily 

 roaming about started away with sundry shrill yelps and were 

 immediately lost to sight. Away they went, until their voices 

 became almost inaudible in the distance, then as they returned — 

 for the agouti (which they were in chase of) invariably returns to 

 the vicinity of the spot where he was first started — their noisy 

 music became plainer and more distinct, until we could hear the 

 animals rushing through the undergrowth near where we were 

 standing, and then the noise got fainter and fainter as the 

 pursued and the pursuers tore their mad course in the opposite 

 direction. Eventually the agouti managed to elude the dogs 

 and we resumed our march, noting on the way a couple of large 



*Ischnosiphon parkexti P 



fCarib baskets. 

 IPancfatium caribbaum. 

 ICouroupita guianensis. 



