SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 235 



Here is an animal of the lizard kind, called guana. It is 

 about three feet long; its skin is brown, with blue marks on 

 the body, and black spots on the neck, and is covered with 

 small scales. Its back and tall are sharp, and indented; its 

 mouth is armed with sharp teeth; it has a bag under the throat, 

 and crooked claws upon its toes. These guanas are generally 

 found among fruit trees, where the natives shoot them with 

 arrows, and esteem their flesh a great delicacy, which is much 

 like that of a chicken ; the eggs are very fine. 



We -have a great number and variety of lizards here, which, 

 however, it would be tedious to describe. 



The snakes in this part of the world are mentioned as va- 

 rious and dangerous. The largest that has ever been found is 

 the aboma. Snakes of this kind have been killed measuring 

 upwards of twenty feet, and they are even said to measure, 

 when full grown, thirty feet in length, and three feet in cir- 

 cumference, at the middle and largest part of the body. I 

 have seen one which lay stretched quite across the road. It is 

 of a brown colour, with black spots upon the back, and upon 

 the sides are black spots with a white center. It is largest in 

 the middle, and grows smaller as you approach the end of the 

 tail. Its head is broad, its mouth wide, with two rows of 

 teeth, its eyes projecting and sparkling, and near the tail are 



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