394 NATIVB RESOURCES. 



Numerous Grylli and nimble-limbed Locusta, of large 

 dimensions and of splendid colours, spread their gauze- 

 like wings, and flew, with whirring noise, from spray to 

 spray. Hosts of merry, never-wearied Cicadas., flitting 

 about on their silvery membranous elytra, and sitting on 

 the twigs among the leaves, raised their shrilly voices 

 above, below, and around : 



" Hino querulas referunt voces, quis nantia limo 

 Corpora lympha fovet ; sonitus alit aeris echo, 

 Argutis et cuncta fremunt arbusta cicadis" * 



Large Lepidoptera, with flapping wings, rose and sunk 

 amid the vistas of the wood, with that lazy way these 

 gorgeous creatures always have in tropical forests, sailing 

 slowly across the open spaces, and gradually disappearing 

 like lovely visions, amid the leafy labyrinths. 



We came at length to the last bivouac of the fugitive 

 Sheriff, at a point of the river where the banks were 

 under water, and where there was an open space, 

 bounded by enormous forest trees, whose quaint and 

 knotted roots appeared above the swamp, in the form of 

 brown and wrinkled twisted serpents, arches full of ex- 

 traordinary contortions, and other strange forms usually 

 assumed by the roots of the Rhizophora Gymnorhiza and 

 similar trees. The pursued and persecuted remnant of the 

 enemy had chosen this miserable spot for its last resting- 

 place, having with native ingenuity thrown trees from 

 root to root, several feet from the surface of the water, 

 with cross pieces of bamboo, secured with rattans and 

 strips of pliant bark, and on these rude and slender plat- 

 forms had erected huts of branches. Here they had 



* Virgil, Culcx. 1. 150. 



