402 
A Jaguar' Swims the Bivee. 
did so. According to what the Indians say, this beautiful bird which is 
distributed over the whole of Guiana, nests on high trees. More numerous 
and less shy was a lovely dark-green glossy ibis, This midifronft, which it is 
not rare to find on the banks of the Demerara. One sees these beautiful 
l)irds always in pairs as they perch on' the bared branches projecting over 
the wat^r of trees that have fallen into it. or search on the lianks for their 
food that may very well consist of insects and aquatic animals. When 
darkness begins to fall they rise into the air, and A\ith their strangely 
guttural cry, make their way (^ver the forest, prol>ablY to their resting- 
place. Prince von Neuwied mentions this peculiarity also with Ibis 
si/Ivnfiea Vieill. 
1.011. Our attention was drawn to a huge creature swimming across 
the river about 200 paces ahead of us. In spite of the long distance 
we were away the Indians immediately recognised a jaguar by the 
cui'ved tail towering above the surface. Although we increased our 
stroke, it managed to reach the bank before we could get within gun- 
shot, clambered up ashore onto an old tree-trunk that had fallen into 
the water, remained standing there to shake the water off its pelt, and 
then like a dog squatted on its hind-quarters and quietly watched our 
aj)proach : it finally got up and slowly slunk away .nloug the log and 
disappeared in the dense forest. 
1.012. After passing the mouth of the Muritaro creek on the right 
bank we came to where, at some 70 miles from the coast as the crow flies, 
the first rocky boulders appeared in the bed of the Demerara, though 
they did not yet rise above the surface of the water.* The river also 
altered its course here: it comes now for 2 miles from an entirely 
westerly direction and then changes again to a southerly one, so that it 
apparently forms a right angle. 
1.013. On the right bank we reached the former station, Post Seba, 
a word signifying Rock in the Arawak language, that had only recently 
been abandoned. Here, about 74 miles in a straight line from Greorge- 
town, appeared the first masses of rock, a granite with plenty of horn- 
blende, the rocky terrain rising some 60 to SO feet above the level of the 
Demerara. Numbers of elegant lichens, especially Vsmaceae and 
Lecidineae put life into the dead stone, in the clefts of which small 
Piperaceae and orchids flourished. From Seba a series of hills, also 
bearing the name of Sandhills, branches off to the S.E. As already 
mentioned it subsequently crosses the Berbice in 5° North lat. and 
continues in this direction up to the Corentyn. Its average height 
amounts to 50 to 60 feet. ( Seetiun 975.) 
1.014. From Seba a path leads to the Berbice which one reaches on 
one of its tributaries, the Wieroni. The connection is through a creek 
on the latter which goes by the name of Caticaboora, where one embarks 
and then travels down it. The distance from Seba to Caticaboora 
*. It seems strange that the presence of ihe Watuka Rocks at Wismar should have 
escaped Schomburgk's notice, (V.R.) 
