190 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



heirs inquired for The Impious Rebellion, behold ! as rare 

 things will, it had vanished. 



Philip Gosse's life at Bluefields now took an almost 

 mechanical uniformity. The house was, as has been said, 

 a well-built mansion ; it was raised, in the colonial fashion, 

 high above the ground, so that its dwelling-rooms were 

 reached by climbing an exterior staircase. The naturalist 

 had no return of those malarial symptoms which had 

 troubled him in Alabama. His health in Jamaica was 

 very good, at all events during the first year, and his 

 spirits excellent. He attributed his good health in great 

 measure to the tonic waters of the Paradise River, the 

 foaming and brawling rivulet which danced through the 

 estate on its way to the ocean. In a hollow of the lime- 

 stone rock, under a little cascade, he was in the habit of 

 taking a long cool bath every day at noon, under the 

 shadow of the bamboos, lounging here for half an hour at 

 a time. On one occasion, he was lying motionless, just 

 beneath the surface, when he observed that a vulture was 

 beginning " to descend in circles, swooping over me, nearer 

 and nearer at every turn, until at length the shadow of 

 his gaunt form swept close between my face and the light, 

 and the rushing of his wide-spread wings fanned my body 

 as he passed. It was evident that he had mistaken me for 

 a drowned corpse ; and probably it was the motion of 

 my open eyes, as I followed his course, that told him all 

 was not quite right, and kept him sailing round in low 

 circles, instead of alighting." Here, too, in languid passages 

 of the day, Philip Gosse would sit and fish for mullet wit 

 pieces of avocado pear,'or grope for crayfish with a fish-po 



These, however, were his idler moments, and in such h 

 did not very often indulge. He would commonly set fort 

 about daybreak, in company with Sam, riding into the 

 forest, alighting to gather shells, orchids, or insects, and 



