230 WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD jj e re treated as usual, and came back again 



JOURNEY. 



- in about an hour. We paid him every attention 

 till three o'clock in the morning ; when, worn out 

 with disappointment, we went to the hammocks, 

 turned in, and fell asleep. 



When day broke, we found that he had con- 

 trived to get the bait from the hook, though 

 we had tied it on with string. We had now no 

 more hopes of taking a cayman, till the return 

 of night. The Indian took off into the woods, 

 and brought back a noble supply of game. The 

 rest of us went into the canoe, and proceeded 

 up the river to shoot fish. We got even more 

 than we could use. 



As we approached the shallows, we could see 

 the large sting-rays moving at the bottom. The 

 coloured man never failed to hit them with his 

 arrow. The weather was delightful. There was 

 scarcely a cloud to intercept the sun's rays. 

 Birds. I saw several scarlet aras, anhingas, and 



ducks, but could not get a shot at them. The 

 parrots crossed the river in innumerable quan- 

 tities, always flying in pairs. Here, too, I saw 

 the Sun-bird, called Tirana by the Spaniards in 

 the Oroonoque, and shot one of them. The 

 black and white scarlet-headed finch was very 

 common here. I could never see this bird in 

 the Demerara, nor hear of its being there. 



We at last came to a large sand-bank, probably 

 two miles in circumference. As we approached 



