638 
THE 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Max 14, 1887. 
we entered a shower began to fall, and for the 
n it was accomplished, and I was free 
soon after 4 o'clock to give my attention to other 
matters, 
The most pressing requirement was to have a 
bath, for we were unpleasantly conscious of the 
ticks we had acquiredon the journey. Walking day 
through the bush we had become covered 
with these tiny parasitical bush ticks, which had 
fastened themselves on our bodies—so plentifully 
on some of us that one could hardly put one’s 
finger in any part from head to foot between the 
inflamed bumps the bites had raised. We used 
the Indian remedies—a good wash and a subse- 
quent thorough anointing with oil made from 
the fruit of the “ Crab tree,” Carapa guianensis ; 
but several days elapsed before the itching and 
ion subsided, This oil has a somewhat . 
offensive but evanescent smell, and is so thick 
that it effectually smothers ү ticks, and at the 
same time allays the irritation. I have called it - 
an Indian remedy, but the fact is that they more 
usually employ ч as a preventive, by oiling their 
naked re they go into the forest hunt- 
bush animals 
seem to be the prey of ticks. 
toads and snakes are almost teva aie. found in- 
fested, and the heads of the birds we shot were 
scarlet under the feathers with the microscopical 
red lice, called by colonists bétes rouges. 
At this settlement I got plants of the great grass, 
— tg Possibly it is the model from which the 
arib potters first formed the water goblets they 
rsen which are exactly of the same sha 
In the evening Isent one of the men to see if he 
could procure any game. He returned with two 
тааш and а pair of warracabras, or trumpet birds, 
The latter go in flocks, often of a score or more 
birds togethe 
All night it rained. Our little house, which w 
not a permanent on intended 
e went into the forest and got 
e head man of the place 
са me а large lump of a felt-like substance he 
had taken from the stomach of a peccary that he had 
мачы 
settlement, and started, The trees were still Pins 
ping, and the bush along the narrow path reached up 
H dedi 
Here we were again in the deceptive Fern paradise 
a эсенда described, 
crashed down on every hand, alarming every one by 
lightning flashed сені. afraid to 
proceed and afraid to The atn iid fury of 
the storm passed a little ne side of us, or it is 
probable we should not haves escaped with the entire 
immunity which was — our lot. 'The fearful 
uproar was short; the storm passed on in its fury, 
and we could hear it лар onward in the dis- 
forest was dren 
| Bat 
RW КУ И pe 7 St 
EWS: 
Fro. 119. XUNG Sess rei VAR. CERNUUS, FROM THE 
** BOTAN PALE YELLOW. (SEE 
through it that was still before us, and the fear that 
we might not reach the next settlement before dark. 
Frequent pools now hid the path, and the stream 
bus e we had walked over dry on the way out 
ow running with turbid water, and had to be 
bridged for passage with lengths of wood. We had 
managed 
by — under the lee of pete 
1 
Let of the чил еу features pre- 
sented "o | the traveller's eye. The foliage of the 
plants and the decaying leaves that cover the ground 
2 n y countless weevils, the authors 
ed. As we stand there pieces of the 
ам fall, аір away by their own weight. 
The first breeze will bring the lot down in a shower, 
or should none soon occur, they will fall, as the pieces 
just noticed fell, one by one. Then the trunk will 
stand for some time longer, till it is gradually brought 
abounds wit 
brown débris, fine as dust, that might be shovelled 
away. Still, though it is in the last stages of decay, 
it shows in outline what were the deep buttresses of 
the once giant tree that in its day of strength was one 
of the glories of the forest, and which probably had its 
birth long before any veo set foot in the land. 
Storms are rare, in fact, in Guiana; and all about 
these dead trees stand, ир lived out their pim 
life, in various stages of decay, some crum 
rapidly under the agency of insect life, others more 
Hardly an hour 
ut the apparently all- piira decay, that 
arrests the imagina 
There i is little in is fero and pleasing to the 
d rd 
e 
in what I rin said of the view from the top О 
Mount Ray-w 
The sketch 1 have drawn is a characteristic feature 
of our deepest forests, but does not apply to o all 
есау, 
sheen the greater part of the year. 
We reached the m soon after five, the 
undergrowth wet all the way. We were glad to be 
im before dark, for hs are difficult 
с the ground. К 
Е to save one, though in graspt 
it not unfrequently happens to bea — 
deer. covered with thorn-like nee 
eedles. ; 
To one accustomed to ы little, PV that little _ 
of Georgetown, t and down hi 
HS 
ere 
