About and Above the Great Falls. 107 



All along this distri6l of the river and for some con- 

 siderable distance upwards, the banks are low and 

 clayey, and the whole country becomes swampy, the forest 

 growth being generally of the kind charafteristic of 

 such regions. Even where the banks are slightly 

 raised, the land within sinks into low-lying distri6ls, 

 which in times of pronounced dry weather may possibly 

 be uncovered by water^ but which now were inter- 

 se6led by the etaboos which are so common in such 

 distrifts, especially where the course of the river is 

 winding and irregular. Here game was quite unobtain- 

 able ; and the Indian huntsmen that were brought up 

 from the Mission for hunting purposes, constantly returned 

 empty-handed. 



It was at a camping place in this swampy distri6l, some 

 16 to 28 miles above the Great Falls, that, for the first time 

 in my travelling expeditions, I experienced the sensation 

 of being surrounded by almost a constant glow of light 

 from various forms of fire-flies. Waking late on a pitch- 

 dark night, I was utterly astounded for the moment by 

 the almost continuous flashing of the lights, the sizes of 

 which were out of all proportion to the bodies of the 

 small fire-flies commonly found on the coast. At three 

 separate times during the night, I made attempts to pro- 

 cure specimens, under the impression that at last, 

 I had alighted upon examples of the magnificent 

 Hemipterous lantern-fly, Fulgora lanternariay which 

 Madame Merian, in her unique description of the 

 inse6ls of Surinam, so carefully figured and des- 

 cribed ; but in each case I was compelled to recognise, 

 instead, specimens of the Coleopterous forms, such as 

 PyrophoruSf Aspidisoma, and Photinus, though, owing 



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