WATER TRAIL FROM GEORGETOWN TO AREMU. 269 



increased. The Cuyuni is awe-inspiring and grand beyond 

 words, but the banks of the Aremu, closing in little by little 

 as we ascended, brought us into more intimate contact with 

 the creatures of jungle and forest. 



We started up the stream in an open ballyhoo of smaller 

 size, at first with paddles, but changing to poles when the 

 water became shallower. Snags, or tacubas as is the more 

 euphonious native name, became abundant and sometimes 

 stretched far out over our heads. Flying fish skimmed in all 

 directions and vampires (Desmodus rufns) in scores flew from 

 the dead branches projecting from the water. They choose 

 a small-sized one, say two inches in diameter, and alight, one 

 below the other, with heads raised, watching us. Like little 

 animated sun-dials they revolve on their perches as the sun 

 passes over, keeping the wood between them and the bright 

 light. Many of the snags had bits of dead leaves and other 

 debris clinging to them, brought down and lodged by the last 

 freshet, and it was not until we almost put our hand on 

 them and the bats flew, that we could tell whether we were 

 looking at a cluster of vampires or dead leaves. There were 

 hundreds throughout the course of the ri\'er, so it is a wide- 

 spread diurnal roosting habit of these fierce little creatures. 

 The blacks in this part of the country call the vampires 

 "Dr. Blairs," after a certain colonial doctor of the olden 

 times whose favorite method of treatment was blood-letting. 



Swallows in the early morning filled the air above the river 

 with a cloud of rapidly moving forms. Orchids in full bloom 

 were abundant, long shoots of Golden Showers, the sweet 

 Epidendrum odoratum and many others unknown to us, all 

 drenched with dew and filling the river canyon with fragrance. 

 Three species of Kingfishers "•'*• "" and big Yellow-bellied 

 Trogons '"^ appeared now and then. The trees were taller 

 than any we had yet seen, many of the moras and cumacas 

 being much over a hundred feet from base to top. 



