60 A NATURALIST IN THE GUI AN AS 



life, we must not forget that closely connected with the 

 distribution of life is the distribution of disease and death, 

 for what is disease and death to one animal may mean 

 life to myriads of organisms each of which is fighting for 

 its own welfare at the cost of the subject it is preying 

 upon. Much has been done in recent years in connection 

 with these terrible diseases due to the introduction into 

 our systems of forms of life detrimental to our well-being 

 or fatal to our existence. Much remains to be done, 

 particularly in the study of those malarial fevers which 

 render so large a part of the tropics uninhabitable. 

 Theoretically Ciudad-Bolivar ought to be a deadly spot ; 

 in reality it is not. The poorer houses are built on the 

 very edge of the swamp, and as the people entertain that 

 bold disregard for sanitation characteristic of South- 

 American peoples, they throw their refuse into the shallow 

 water close to their doors, and they appear to have been 

 following this system for quite a length of time without 

 having to pay any penalty for their sins against cleanli- 

 ness. This may serve as a lesson to more civilised people 

 that there is yet much to be learnt in the science of 

 sanitation. 



The cathedral and plaza, government buildings and 

 principal houses, are on the top of the hill, where it is 

 almost flat. Those learned in historical detail point out 

 the spot quite close to the National College where Simon 

 Bolivar suddenly decided upon the colours of the infant 

 republic he had founded. Suggestions were being made 

 by a party of ladies and gentlemen assembled for the 

 purpose of fixing upon a national flag, when a rainbow 

 appeared in the heavens. ' What finer colours could we 

 think of for our flag,' exclaimed the Libertador, ' than 

 those of the rainbow ? ' And this is how the Spanish- 



