On the Upper Berbice River. 329 



now and then flitted high up among the branches, 



they were invisible and could not be caught. Large 



cow-flies, the stab of which might be compared to the 



prodding with a large needle, occasionally worried us, and 



gave a variety to the misery caused by the " cabowroo" 



flies, which along some of the upper parts of this river 



are extremely numerous, especially in bare rocky or 



sandy places. These flies, but little smaller than the 



common house-fly of the colony, abstra6l a considerable 



amount of blood, and, owing to the size of the pun6lure, 



leave a large clot to mark the site of their feast. Owing 



to the shortness of the stabbing organs, they cannot 



penetrate ordinary clothes, but exposed parts are most 



cruelly attacked, and the bare bodies of the Indians 



suffer accordingly. The abundance of the cabowroo 



formed one of the reasons — and a highly intelligible one 



— given me by an Indian, why his fellows do not make 



settlements along these beautiful and inviting distrifts. 



The cushie or umbrella ants proved a perfe6l nuisance 



in the camp, and the rice and biscuits formed a constant 



point of attack, and at times their marching columns 



seemed Hke white lines from the large pieces of 



biscuits being carried off by them. The most tantalising 



pests, however, were the bush-ticks, large and small, 



which were more numerous here than I had ever 



experienced on any other river; while higher up at the 



Christmas catara6ls they must have been in myriads, 



since even on the rocks they were plentiful. 



All along the distri6l to Itabru, the trees consisted of 

 valuable kinds, such as mora, greenheart, bullet-wood, 

 crab-wood, purple-heart, wallaba, etc. ; while hyawa, 

 marciballi, baramalli, kakeralli and other common trees 



