LIFE IN THE GUIANA WILDS 181 



Mosquitoes are not lacking, but they appear at night 

 only, when one can easily evade them by remaining indoors; 

 and through the hours of darkness the twanging and peep- 

 ing of myriads of frogs fill the air with a not unmusical din. 



The population is the most cosmopolitan imaginable. It 

 ranges from dignified, helmeted British officers down to the 

 meanest Chinese or Hindu coolie living in a dilapidated 

 shamble on the border of a marshy rice-field. 



Our first care was to secure the admission of our equip- 

 ment by the customs officials. This was accompKshed with- 

 out an undue amoimt of diflliculty; and within a short time 

 we had also obtained a permit to pursue our scientific work, 

 for in British Guiana birds are wisely protected. We also 

 opened negotiations with Sproston's, Ltd., who operate 

 many large lumber, rubber, and mining enterprises in the 

 interior of the comitry. This step is a most essential one, 

 as the concern, through its agents, can be of the greatest 

 assistance to the traveller. 



On July 7, we boarded a comfortable little steamer and 

 started up the Demerara. Rain fell in torrents throughout 

 the day so that it was impossible to see anything but the 

 fleeting, yellow water against which the straining craft 

 battled vigorously, and the long rows of trees faintly out- 

 lined in a world of blue-gray mist. Wismar was reached 

 that night and passengers and luggage were hurried aboard 

 the waiting train, which soon covered the eighteen miles 

 of intervening country to Rockstone, on the Essiquibo River. 

 A delightful bungalow hotel is maintained by Sproston's at 

 the latter place, and every need of the visitor is superabun- 

 dantly supplied. 



A launch of considerable size, towing a house-boat pro- 

 vided for first-class passengers, left Rockstone early the 

 following morning. The Essiquibo is truly a very great 

 river, and the height and magnificence of the forest cover- 

 ing its banks is not exceeded in any part of South America. 

 In some instances, the trees are one hundred and seventy- 

 five feet high; cottonwood, greenheart, and wallaba mingled 



