EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 279 



blue, as can only be compared to the azure ficy in a CHAP. 



XI 



bright clay, to which not the pureft ultramarine coloured ^..^^y-^ 

 fattin can approach : the under fide is of a lovely brown 

 variegated with fpots. I cannot help repeating, that it3 

 ikimming and hovering with fuch a magnitude, and 

 fuch a hue, among the different lliades of green, had the 

 moil enchanting effedt. Of the antennae, head, thorax, 

 and abdomen, I fliall only fay that they were dark co- 

 loured. This fly, if I miltake nor, is, according to the 

 divifion of Linnaeus, of the Danai fpecies. I never faw 

 the chryfalite or aurelia ; but the caterpillar, which is of 

 a yellowifli grey colour, is as thick as a large man's 

 finger, and about four inches long. The annexed draw- 

 ing I have improved from one of Mils Merian. Various 

 and innumerable indeed are the butterflies with which 

 the forefts of Guiana abound ; fome people, in fad:, who 

 make fly-catching their bulinefs, get much money by 

 it ; and having arranged them in paper-boxes, with pins, 

 fluck through them, fend them oft" to the different cabi- 

 nets of Europe. Doctor Bancroft mentions, touching 

 them with fpirits of turpentine as neceflary to preferve 

 them, but fixing a piece of camphor in the box with the 

 flies is quite fufficient. 



This evening we encamped near the Patamaca Greek,, 

 where the poor negro woman cried bitterly, and fcat- 

 tered fome vicftuals and water at the root of a tree by way 

 of libation, as being the fpot where her hufband was 



interred^ 



