246 TWO YEAES IN THE JUNGLE, 



ways finds it more profitable to buy whatever small specimens can 

 be caught and brought to him, than to go out and try to make all 

 the captures himself. When the gentlemen of leisure are once well 

 interested, and made to believe they are making money without 

 working for it — for collecting is usually regarded as mere play — 

 they wiU ransack the country over for whatever is required. The 

 best way to get natives started at collecting is to say nothing about 

 one's wants or intentions, but put on old clothes and go out to some 

 i^romising spot. When the people see a white man wading after 

 turtles in a muddy pond, or plodding along the sea-shore after 

 shells, star-fishes, or echinoderms, or digging crabs out of the sand, 

 they are struck with the novelty of the thing at once. When they 

 find that the crab digger has money in his pockets, and will give it 

 for such " trash," they set to work at once and collect whatever will 

 fetch the most money. I have often been amused at the way the 

 West India negroes take hold of such work. A collector may be 

 carrying home a basket of squirming and crawling specimens after 

 a Uvely day's work in the field, when an astonished darkey breaks 

 in upon his meditations with : 



" Oh, boys, lookee dah ! Ho ! ho ! ho ! See what dat man got, 

 hey ! Say, boss, d'ye want to buy any mo' o' dem air critters ? " 



"Yes, I do, all I can get," will be the reply. 



"Why, lawdy-massy! man, I kin git you 'osts o' dem air. 

 How much you give fo' dem ? " 



" I will j)ay you a fair price." 



Off they go, laughing at the absm-dity of the thing, but they 

 will be almost sure to bring in something, either good or bad. 

 The news is quickly spread that "a man at the hotel is buying 

 snakes and things," after which he soon has enough to do in buy- 

 ing and caring for what is brought in, and giving directions about 

 what else is wanted. 



One morning about sunrise, I dressed for rough work, and, tak- 

 ing with me a coolie and a basket, started for the reef of rocks 

 along the shore in front of the battery. There is nearly always 

 something for the naturalist in such places, often a good deal, and 

 the examination is sui'e to afford a series of pleasant surprises. 

 On the sheltered side of the rocks we visited, or down in the hollow 

 crevices between the huge bowlders which were piled up along the 

 shore, we found scores of black-spined echini sticking tightly to the 

 rocks, in such situations that the incoming surf submerged them 

 one moment, and, receding the next, left them for the time, almost 



