THE FLORIDAS, &C. 421 



and Delta is in a fever to get a peep at some other solitary 

 cayman, or, perchance, the ghost of the very cayman on which 

 Waterton rode ; let him go to " Crocodile Lick," cross rivers 

 on a bridge of crocodiles, and then let him write Delta papers 

 of what he has done, not of what he will do. 



The range of our imagination, wide though it be, presents 

 us with no picture half so interesting as the learned Delta, 

 rigged in full entomological apparel, his wide white hat literally 

 blazing with impaled butterflies — the gorgeous butterflies of 

 the tropics — his right hand waving his net high above his 

 head, his left ever and anon extended to preserve his balance, 

 and his feet cautiously picking their way across the mighty 

 streams of America coolly tripping, " with light fantastic toe," 

 from head to head of the terrific alligators, while millions of 

 these enraged and giant saurians half blinded him with their 

 cloudy breath — half drowned him with deluges of water ejected 

 from their maws — half deprived him of hearing by the incessant 

 thunder of their roaring. 



Let us pass from Crustacea to Arachnoida. Strictly speak- 

 ing, or rather to make our review strictly entomological, we will 

 suppose the crocodile a crustaceous animal, his shelly skin 



clearly evinces a relationship to the ; but we are not 



now on system, we merely signify to our readers that we choose 

 to call the crocodile crustaceous. Now we will go on with the 

 spider. 



" As I was gathering," says our author, " specimens of 

 flowers from the shrubs, I was greatly surprised by the sudden 

 appearance of a remarkably large spider on a leaf; at sight of 

 me he boldly faced about, and raised himself up as if ready to 

 spring upon me ; his body was about the size of a pigeon's egg, 

 of a buff colour, and, together with his legs, was covered with 

 short silky hair ; on the top of his abdomen was a round red 

 spot encircled with black. After I had recovered from the 

 surprise, and seeing that the wary hunter had retired under 

 cover, I drew near again, and presently discovered that I had 

 disturbed him on a predatory expedition against the insect 

 tribes. I was therefore determined to watch his proceedings. 

 I soon observed that the object of his wishes was a large fat 

 humble bee, that was visiting the flowers and piercing their 

 nectariferous tubes. The cunning intrepid hunter concealed 

 his approaches with the circumspection and perseverance of a 



