bb BLUEFIELDS. 



{Lumbricus)i very much like those of our gardens in 

 appearance, but two or three times as large, and 

 glossed with more vivid prismatic reflections, were 

 also found. But what I considered the greatest cu- 

 riosity was a small Peripatus, which I suspect to be 

 different from the species found by the Rev. Lands- 

 downe Guilding at St. Vincent's. It is a curious 

 creature, and I certainly think rather allied to the 

 Annellida than to the MoUusca. It is of a velvety 

 appearance, of a blackish-brown hue, the tentacles 

 tipped with white. From these latter organs there 

 exudes, when the animal is touched, a thick gluti- 

 nous substance, as adhesive as birdlime. It crawls 

 about as fast as a caterpillar of a Bombyx, and much 

 in the same manner. The skin repelled both water 

 and spirit when immersed. When put into the 

 latter, a considerable quantity of milky fluid was 

 poured from the mouth. The animal was rather 

 scarce, only five or six specimens having been dis- 

 covered, all under the stones ; one was twice as large 

 as any of the others. 



Immediately above the piece of ground in which 

 these researches were made, the mountain rises into 

 a conical peak of considerable elevation, though not 

 the very loftiest. It is covered with the original 

 forest, all in the rude luxuriant wildness that it bore 

 in the days when the glories of these Hesperides first 

 burst upon Europeans' astonished eyes. The gloom 

 of the interior is so sombre, and its contrast wath the 

 eff'ulgence of the sunshine without so great, as almost 

 to deter one from penetrating it. I certainly felt a 



