WATER TRAIL FROM GEORGETOWN TO AREMU. 275 



some other species with a single loud whistle. A Cormorant 

 rose with heavy wing-beats ahead of us, and when we flushed 

 it the second time we shot it. It was the litde Guiana Cormo- 

 rant " only twenty-eight inches in length, with eyes of dull 

 green. A deer broke away from the banli at the sound of 

 the shot and dashed off. 



That night we made camp in the jungle. A skeleton 

 shelter roof of poles was thrown up, over which was stretched 

 a tarpaulin, coming to within six or seven feet of the ground 

 all around. Then a double row of stout stakes was driven 

 into the leaf mould along each side and the hammocks slung 

 from them. They were springy, and one swung not only 

 sideways but with a slight end for end motion that made 

 every movement easy. 



Wlrile we were making camp we were hailed by a passing 

 ballyhoo, the occupant of which proved to be Mr. Fowler, 

 the head of the Colony Department of Lands and Mines, 

 who had been at the mine on a tour of inspection and was 

 now on his way back to Georgetown. Hospitable Mrs. 

 Wilshire at once invited him to come over from his camping 

 place farther downstream and dine with us. A dinner jjarty 

 in the " bush!" We all shared the feeling of fesrivity. The 

 men hastily constructed a table of the trunks of young sap- 

 lings, while the rest of the party hung lighted lanterns from 

 the overhanging branches. Directly in front of the camp 

 was a tall, straight Copa tree draped with long hanging bush 

 ropes dangling from the lowest branches, seventy or eighty 

 feet up the trunk. The base sent out thin, far-reaching 

 buttresses, the intervals between which formed natural seats 

 and closets for our guns and bags. Mr. Fowler's Indian 

 hunter brought in several Curassows which we added to the 

 Cormorant for dinner. Mr. Fowler had seen a Bush-master 

 (Lachesis mu(iis) a few hundred yards upstream, the first 

 poisonous snake of which we had heard on this trip. We 



