318 WANDERINGS IN 



FOURTH (t use a vulgar phrase) had come Yorkshire over 



JOURNEY. V 



me ; and so I determined to find out how he had 



managed to take me in. I cut the ball in two, 

 and then saw what a taught trick he had played 

 me. It seems he had chewed some leaves into 

 a lump, the size of a walnut, and then dipped 

 them in the liquid gum-elastic. It immediately 

 received a coat about as thick as a sixpence. He 

 then rolled some more leaves round it, and gave 

 it another coat. He seems to have continued 

 this process, till he made the ball considerably 

 larger than the one I had procured; and in 

 order to put his roguery out of all chance of 

 detection, he made the last and outer coat thicker 

 than a dollar. This Indian would, no doubt, 

 have thriven well in some of our great towns. 

 Returns Finding that the rainy season was coming on, 

 England. I left the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo with 

 regret, towards the close of December, 1824 ; and 

 reached once more the shores of England, after 

 a long and unpleasant passage. 



Concluding Ere we part, kind reader, I could wish to 

 draw a little of thy attention to the instructions 

 which are to be found at the end of this book. 

 Twenty years have now rolled away, since I first 

 began to examine the specimens of zoology in 

 our museums. As the system of preparation is 

 founded in error, nothing but deformity, dis- 

 tortion, and disproportion, will be the result of 

 the best intentions, and utmost exertions of the 



