24 Mr. James Epps, Jun., on 
The fish round the coast are plentiful, and the chief ones are 
the grouper, the king-fish or tasard, the Spanish mackerel or 
carite, the baracuta or becune, the pike or brochet, the carrangue 
or covali, the lebranche, the mullet, coulirou, and the pagre. 
The freshwater fish are few; they are the guabin and yarro, and 
the cascaradura, a mud-fish found in ponds of the Caroni. The 
poisonous fish not fit for food are the shark, ray, baracuta, and 
vingt-quatre-heure ; not even the corbeau will eat it. The shell- 
fish are the crab, crab-manicou and mountain-crab, crayfish, 
shrimp, lobster, and oyster. 
The island swarms with insects; the most common are the 
ants, of which there are several varieties ; the most dreaded is 
the parasol-ant, which works havoc in the plantations, and both 
time and money are spent in destroying it. This is usually done, 
in the wet season, by digging a trench round the nest, and then 
fillmg up with water and puddling the holes. It is most surpris- 
ing to see the paths made by these ants for yards away from 
their nests; also it is amusing to see thousands busily carrying 
large pieces of leaf to their nests, looking exactly as if covered 
with a green parasol. Then we have the brown ant, which 
builds its nest up in the trees; this is not a destructive ant, but 
a common one, and its nests up in the trees are often met with; 
some weighing twenty to thirty pounds. Then we have a very 
small brown variety, which, owing to its eccentric motions, is 
called the crazy ant; these will sting. Then we have the 
mosquito, which will also sting, and is a great pest at certain 
seasons of the year. Then we have the béte rouge, a small 
microscopic insect, which will attack the legs if you have been 
travelling through long dry grass, causing the skin to itch 
intensely. A little liquid ammonia is about the best antidote. 
Then we have the cricket, ‘Jack Spaniard”’ (several varieties), 
which is a species of hornet; sandflies, centipedes, scorpions, &c., 
and a fine variety of butterflies. 
All things come to an end, and at last the day for our departure 
arrived, and it was with great regret that we had to leave this 
beautiful warm and sunny island for home. 
On the second day after leaving we arrived at Barbadoes, where 
we determined to stop for a week before going on to Jamaica. A 
few days after our arriva] in Barbadoes small-pox broke out, and 
we were much disappointed to find that the Royal Mail Company 
would not book us to Jamaica, as the other islands had quarantined 
all ships coming from Barbadoes, so we left Barbadoes by the 
next mail for England. 
The island of Barbadoes is in a sad state. They have depended 
entirely on their sugar industry, and now many of the estates 
have been abandoned, and there is little work for the large 
population, and a crisis has to be faced. The island is of coral 
pile 
