114 



OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



thus kept down the number of mosquitoes. A Barbadian 

 who chanced to be in the audience interrupted the scientist 

 by saying, " Oh, but that is not the reason they put fishes 

 in the cisterns. It is to make sure the water has not been 

 poisoned by some enemy "! 



Until the mosquito is exterminated in Georgetown the 

 tourist will prefer to go elsewhere, even though that be to a 

 less beautiful spot. 



Fig. 58. KisKADEE Tye.\nt Flycatcher. 



We were advised to spend all our time in Georgetown, where 

 we might drink pink swizzles (than which no worse medicine 

 exists!) or read in the cool library, or study the natural history 

 of the country impaled on pins or stuffed with cotton (both 

 of which are improving occupations but can be done quite 

 as well in New York). Every moment spent in streets of 

 human making seemed sacrilege when the real wilderness — 

 the wilderness of Waterton, of Schomburgk and of im Thurn 

 — beckoned to us just beyond. 



