Presentation to Dr. Ferguson and Lecture by Dr. Beebe. 157 



Dutch. Leaving there, he showed a number of various Indian tribes, 

 including the Ackawois who, as he pointed out on the screen, were 

 remarkably well developed. Then they passed over Kalacoon to where the 

 gold miners were, on to the diamond fields. They encountered a little 

 Ackawoi hunter who shot a lot of game for them for the greater part of 

 the time. Passing on, the waters of the Mazaruni river were brought to 

 view and here the lecturer explained that those waters contained a kind of 

 fish known as " pirai " which were very dangerous and were greatly 

 feared by all who travelled in the river. It was very difficult, he said, to 

 catch these fish on account of their voraciousness. With their formidable 

 teeth, which were shown, they would almost bite through any wire. 



Mr. Howes, their entomologist, took many handsome photographs, 

 and it was only by those photographs that they hoped to gather anything. 

 Eeferring to the seasons in that part of the interior, the lecturer said 

 they were very i - emarkable and they corresponded to those in the north. 

 As a matter of fact they were intensely interesting. 



They also took some photographs of living creatures which they never 

 had before. From the specimens they had in their northern museum, 

 continued the lecturer, they would never have known anything about 

 what they had seen. The giant marine toad, a photograph of which was 

 shown, was also very interesting. A picture of the Virginia opossum, 

 known as the yawarrie, was described by the Professor. He showed 

 how the mother with her young would go out in the evening time, look- 

 ing for food for them and how they clung to her tenaciously. The 

 jungle scenes were also very interesting and edifying to him, said the 

 Professor, and he said at this stage that he would invite the American 

 Botanical Gardens to send down some of their men in these parts to 

 make a study of these interesting things and above all the headquarters, 

 he would suggest should be in British Guiana. (Applause.) It was so 

 much better, he continued, to obtaiu real live photographs than to have 

 the dry skeletons which gave them no information whatever. 



Professor Beebe then gave an exhibition of the maam which he said 

 was similar to the partridge, the only difference between them being the 

 leg. One had a smooth pair of legs whilst the other's legs were-, rough. 

 There was something very strange about the maam and that was that the 

 male bird did all the incubating whilst the lady maam went to — ' the Lor' 

 knows where.' (Laughter). The lecturer also dealt with what is known 

 as " warracabras " or trumpeters. Various other species of the beasts 

 and birds of our interior were dealt with, including the sloth, the Canje 

 pheasants, and tb.3 " curious judicial-looking monkey,'' — to use the lec- 

 turer's own phrase. In this colony, concluded Professor Beebe, more 

 things could be seen and better too, than in any other place. And better 

 ideas could be got here in a short time, than in a museum for a lifetime. 



The lecture concluded, His Excellency said that he had listened to 

 something very interesting in Professor Beebe's lecture. Professor Beebe 

 would be surprised that he (the speaker) did not take the interest as he 



