IGUANAS AND LIZARDS. 255 
had been left by the tide. The sight of them, hanging 
there with gaping mouths, brought to mind the cruise 
of Columbus in: the bay of Paria, only one hundred 
miles south of this island of Grenada. He was in 
search of pearls, and “ he had read in Pliny, that pearls 
were generated from drops of dew which fell into the 
mouths of oysters. There were great numbers of 
mangroves growing within the water, with oysters 
clinging to their branches, their mouths open — as he 
supposed —to receive the dew which was afterwards 
to be transformed into pearls.” 
The order Saurza, the lizard order, is well repre- 
sented in the West Indies, though in none of the 
smaller islands between Porto Rico and Trinidad is 
to be found that greatest of the saurzans, the alligator. 
The Indians of Dominica, to whom I described the 
alligator, were greatly amazed to hear of a “lizard” 
twelve feet in length, as they had never seen one 
larger than the iguana, which seldom attains a greater 
length than five feet, and is as mild in disposition as 
the alligator is sanguinary. The islands, especially 
the shores, are teeming with lizards of every color, 
of every variety of marking, and of all sizes. 
Especially do they love the cliffs, and if you are 
walking through the bushes at the base of any sunny 
precipice, or over any rocky tract, you will be startled 
by the frequent dashes made by these reptiles across 
your path. In a country where you must keep every 
sense on the alert, to guard against sudden surprise 
by serpents or poisonous insects, it is very annoying, 
often startling, to be so frequently disturbed by these 
active creatures. In the mountains are fewer species, 
and they are more sluggish, but in the warm lowlands 
