WATER TRAIL FROM GEORGETOWN TO AREMU. 271 



behind. The white spots revolved rapidly, while the rest 

 of the wings became a mere gray haze. These weird crea- 

 tures, apparently so ethereal and fragile, were hunting for 

 spiders, and their method was regular and methodical. 

 From under leaves or from the heart of widespread webs, 

 good-sized spiders were snatched. A momentary juggling 

 with the strong legs, a single nip and the spider minus its 

 abdomen dropped to the mould, while the dragon-fly alighted 

 and sucked the juices of its victim. If we drew near one of 

 these spiders on its web, it instantly darted away, sliding 

 down a silken cable to the ground or dashing into some 

 crevice, but the approach of the hovering dragon-fly, al- 

 though rather deliberate, was unheeded, the spider remain- 

 ing quiet until snatched from its place. 



On a tiny jungle creek we alarmed several large, blunt- 

 nosed brown lizards, with low dorsal crests, which ran up 

 into the branches to escape us. In this respect they dif- 

 fered from the big. iguanas wliich always dropped with a 

 resounding splash into the water at our approach. 



Near some wild plum trees whose fruit was ripe, we found 

 tracks of deer, agoutis and some of the smaller cats. The 

 fruit was yellow and oblong in shape with a large stone, and 

 tasted the way a tonca bean smells — bitter and yet sweet — 

 a strange concentrated essence of the tropics which excited 

 one, in that it differed so completely from the taste of any 

 other fruit. 



Morphos became more abundant from this point on. 

 Some were wholly iridescent blue above — a blinding, flash- 

 ing mirror of azure; others were crossed by a broad band of 

 black, while in a third species the blue was reduced to a 

 narrow bar down the centre of the wing. Great yellow 

 swallow-tailed butterflies and exquisite smaller ones flew 

 about us. The crocodiles of the Aremu were all small, none 

 over three feet, and were all black in color. 



