102 CONTENT. 



season, the drops, depending from every twig, and 

 lying in globules in the hollows of the leaves, both 

 reflect and refract the beam, like thousands of dia- 

 monds. 



I have said that the interior of the forest is veiled 

 in the deepest gloom, concealing every object ; but 

 this is true only of such objects as depend for their 

 visibility on external light. The very depth of the 

 darkness only makes more perceptible some objects 

 there, which shine by their own proper radiance. 

 Here and there, all around, among the trees and 

 shrubs, little lights arc flitting along a few feet above 

 the ground, wliich the beholder can scarcely persuade 

 himself are not candles borne about by some human 

 inhabitants of the forest. These are Fire-flies, species 

 of the same family {LampyridcB) as the Glow-worm of 

 our own summer evenings, but in many instances far 

 exceeding it in lustre. There are other lights, how- 

 ever, which surpass tlie brightest of these ; a red 

 glare dashes by with headlong rapidity along the 

 grassy edges of the woods, now concealed, then 

 flaming out again, which we at once see to be of 

 a superior character to the sparks of the woods. 

 This also is the torch of an insect {Pi/rophorus noc- 

 tilucus), to which I shall give the English appellation 

 of Glow-fly a beetle of the family Elaterida. To 

 eacli of these families 1 shall devote a few remarks. 



The Lawjyyrida^ are, in Jamaica, far more abundant 

 than I*ijrophorus 7ioctUucus.* At all times, their 



• Mr. Sflls' statement, tliat " tlie sijli'iidid limiiiioiis s])ectacle in 

 Jamaica is produced exclusively by tlie EluUiidw, tlie li{^lit of tlie 



