ISLANDS 



461 



A >in;ill waiulri'iiii:- I'liiii >!i)i'in 

 (lrirtf<! ;i,u;iiii>l tlic t;illr,-l jiUdii ami 

 >\)\\\ ill two. (iiic halt' u'oiiiu' away dnwii 

 the Cin\>\ ami ihc yr>\ |)a>siiiu- close 

 on(ni,a"]i to u- to sliowrr tin- decks with 

 (lro|i>. A,- it t'ell astern, il spread out 

 faiiwix' and in its heart dcNcloped a 

 i;lio,-ily lunar rainhow - t lie sped mm 

 ck'inised and deiinded of all tin' .^arisli 

 colors of day. . . . 



Oiu-o a faint li.u'lit appeareij upon the 

 di.-tant >liore. Our steamer spoke in a 

 short. >liarp hla>t which thrilled us with 

 its unexpectedness, and t he sii^nal anioiiL;' 

 the palni> was (pieiiched. l-'rom the 

 ^a'l'cat thinii-s of the cosmos, from liril- 

 liaiit \'enus. and from the North Star 

 low in the >ky. rmin the new splendor 

 of Fonialhaut. risini;- e\-er hiu'her in the 

 south, our thouu'hts were forced ])aek to 

 the litileiie-ses of t he World War, wliose 

 faint intiueiice reached even thus far to 

 hreak the thri'ad of our al)straetion. 



Baiibados. IX EcLii'si': axd ix Sux 



The vagaries of a naturalist are the 

 deli<i'ht of the uninitiated, and impress 

 simple natives more than immoderate 

 tips or the routine excesses of tourist 

 folk. One's scientific eccentricities may 

 even establish a small measure of fame, 

 or rather notoriety. So it was that as 

 I walked up the landing stage at 

 Bridgetown, a small ehon ])crsonage 

 pointed finger at me and confided to his 

 neighlior. "See de mon — de tall mon da 

 — he de mon who chase tree lizards in 

 de cemetry I" 



'"Yes. George." I said. ''\'u] de mon 

 who chased them with you two years 

 ago. hut this time we shall catch them 

 as well." 



"Anyting you say iriie, Boss, Fse yo 

 l)oy." 



But as is always true in sport, cer- 

 tainty rol)s it of the finest element of 

 excitement, and our successfid stalks 

 that afternoon with grass stem nooses 

 were less memorable than the frantic 

 tree circlings and grave hurdlings of 

 two vears l)efore. 



On our return from the cemetery a 

 hj-ee/.e swept up fi-om tlii' sea, the palm 

 fronds slithered agaijist oik; another, 

 and 1 suddenly caught myself shiver- 

 ing. The moment 1 became conscious 

 (d' this 1 thought id' fever and wondered 

 if my lifehuig immunity had come to 

 an end. 'Idieii I ohserxcd old hags 

 wrapping themselves up; my eyes sud- 

 denly i-eadjiisted, 1 ])t'rceive(l that the 

 glaring sunlight was tempered; again 

 the strange midday breeze arose, and 

 liiially 1 realized that I was witnessing 

 an ecli])se of the sun on the island of 

 Barbados. The natives and the birds 

 and e\-en the ])atient little doid<evs 

 grew restless, the light became weaker 

 and strange, and until the end of the 

 eclipse we couhl think of nothing else. 

 The most remarkable ])art to me was 

 the reflections. Looking, however has- 

 tily and obliquely at the sun. 1 per- 

 ceived nothing but a blinding glare, 

 l)ut walking beneath the shade of dense 

 tropical foliage, the hosts of specks of 

 sunlight sifting through, reflected on 

 the white limestone, were in reality 

 thousands of tiny representations of the 

 sun's disk incised with the segment of 

 the silhouetted moon, but reversed, just 

 like the image through the aperture of 

 a pinhole camera. I suppose it is a 

 very common physical phenomenon, 

 but to me it was a surprising thing to 

 trace the curve of the eclipse clearly 

 and with ease in the sunbeams on the 

 pavement beneath my feet, while my 

 retinas refused to face or register the 

 original. 



Barbados is very flat, thoroughly cul- 

 tivated, and said to he the most densely 

 populated hit of land in the world : all 

 of which guidebook gossip was discour- 

 aging to a naturalist. But besides the 

 cemetery which was sanctuary for the 

 jolly little lizards. I found a bit of un- 

 spoilt beach, with sand as white and 

 fine as talcum powder, where dwelt un- 

 disturbed many assemblages of small 

 folk. There Wi'w land crabs which had 

 come to ha\'e at heart more aU'ection 



