190 A NATURAIJST IN THE GUI AN AS 



is that the settlers wander about in their leisure 

 moments, undertake hunting excursions into the forest, 

 open tracks in all directions, and explore the rivers and 

 creeks, so that with time they come to know the country 

 thoroughly and are able to move about with confidence 

 and rapidity, which is not the case with those taking 

 part in casual expeditions. I am convinced that at some 

 future period the rubber industry on the Nichare, and in 

 other hitherto unexplored parts of the basin of the Caura, 

 will form an important source of revenue to whomsoever 

 may then possess that part of Venezuela. 



While Longacre and his gang attended to the 

 commercial part of our expedition, the Trinidad men were 

 employed collecting birds and butterflies, but they suffered 

 so much from fever that, although they did their best, we 

 did not obtain the results I expected. Jacobson attended 

 to the labelling of the specimens ; Villegente prepared 

 the skins. My men collected some good Callistes, among 

 which were two males and one female of the beautiful 

 Calliste paradisea. They also obtained the new Micro- 

 cerculus caurensis ^ and Bamphastos haematorhynchus,'^ 

 and a king-tody. 



On the 6th the Indians, Isidor and Vicente, left us 

 without warning. They must have sneaked out of camp 

 at dead of night, for no one was aware of their departure 

 until it was discovered that the small boat was missing 

 and that they had disappeared. I was very ill on that 

 day and on the three or four following ones, so ill, as I 

 learnt from Jacobson afterwards, that he and Longacre 

 had fixed upon a nice cool spot at the foot of a large tree 

 as a suitable resting-place for my fever-stricken remains. 



' No. 12 of Novitatcs Zoologiccd, voL ix., April 1902. 

 2 Ibid., No. a38. 



