242 WANDERINGS IN 



Third tion, might have been expected ; but it turned out other- 



Journey. 



wise ; and after expendmg large sums in pursuit of 



natural history, on my return home I was doomed to 

 pay for my success : — 



" Hie finis, Caroli fatorum, hie exitus ilium, 

 Sorte tulit \" 



Thus, my fleece, already ragged and torn with the thorns 

 and briars, which one must naturally expect to find in 

 distant and untrodden wilds, was shorn, I may say, on 

 its return to England. 

 Conclusion, However, this is nothing new ; Sancho Panza must 

 have heard of similar cases; for he says, " Muchos van 

 por lana, y vuelven trasquilados many go for wool, 

 and come home shorn. In order to pick up matter for 

 natural history, I have wandered through the wildest 

 parts of South America's equatorial regions. I have 

 attacked and slain a modern Python, and rode on the 

 back of a Cayman close to the water's edge ; a very 

 different situation from that of a Hyde -park dandy on 

 his Sunday prancer before the ladies. Alone and bare- 

 foot I have pulled poisonous snakes out of their lurking 

 places ; climbed np trees to peep into holes for bats and 

 vampires, and for days together hastened through sun 

 and rain to the thickest parts of the forest to procure 

 specimens I had never got before. In fine, I have pur- 

 sued the wild beasts over hill and dale, through swamps 

 and quagmires, now scorched by the noon-day sun, now 



