266 
We See Our First Otters. 
i glob osu m strove to make themselves as tall as the Mora, their trunks 
shooting up above an impenetrable thicket, at least 30-foot high, of 
Cucurbitaceae which had crept up to them and crowded out every other 
genus of plant. The eastern bank was low and showed only Psidium and 
Cecropia pelt at a A 
769. An innumerable swarm of pigeons {Columba rufina Tem.) 
enlivened the mighty trumpet-trees with which ehe island was invested, 
and the coo ing of the males sounding in the distance indicated the 
pairing season. Not daring to let slip this excellent chance for a tasty 
supper, the hard and rough language of our guns broke discordant 
in between the soft and flattering notes of love. A curling smoke 
through the thick foliage ahead shewed that we were not only getting 
near camp, but that we should find boiling water ready for our spoil. 
770. With the shout “A water dog! a water dog!’’ the coloured crew 
drew my attention to an animal that indeed did look a good deal like a 
dog swimming. The Warraus called it Etopu. While directing my 
attention to it I suddenly kept on seeing more and more heads emerging 
from tlie water until at last seven, in which 1 soon recognised otters, had 
collected round our corial. With a peculiar barking and snorting they 
came close to the boat, now raised themselves to more than half their 
length above the surface, then disappeared just as quickly, and bobbed 
up again at a distance farther off. The Indians now gave a most striking 
imitation of their peculiar rattling note during the execution of which 
they at the same time kept continually tapping their throats with the 
hard flats of their hands. At once the otters were all attention and ranged 
themselves in a row: enticed by, and inquisitive at, the sounds they then 
came swimming over to us where they kept on repeating their husky bark 
as well as their previous manoeuvres of bobbing up and down, and ex- 
posing their frightful sets of teeth. Of course we all had our guns ready 
Hit as we were about to raise them every head disappeared below, only 
to come into view again at spots quite other than where we expected them. 
The sport proved too slow for one of the Indians: he suddenly fired his 
weapon, the animals escaped, and only emerged again in the 
far distance. They were the first otters that I had come across. 
According to what the coloured people told me, two species are found in 
the Essequibo, and equal difficulties encountered in hunting them. 
Whenever it receives a wound not immediately fatal, the animal dives 
at once and does not appear again: I was able to convince myself of this 
many times subsequently by repeated experience. I was unfortunately 
not certain whether the two species that were very frequently seen in the 
t Amongst the many ferns that T collected on the banks of the Essequibo are to he 
found several new species which Dr. Klotzsch has already described in v. Schlectendal’s 
Linnaea. Yol XVIII, Part Y. under “ Beiträgen zu einer Flora der Aequinoctialgegenden der 
neuen Welt. ” The genus Lindsava especially supplied me with a quantity of new species, 
as : Schnmhurqlcii, c-enata, divarienfa, Morilziana. pendula, gracilis, Ttaddiana . Klotzsch. Besides 
these I found Lindsaua reniformis Drvander, X. trapeziformix Snlisb.. L. dubia Spreng. L strict a 
Dryand , as well as Alsoph.il a f er o:r Presl., Taj a odium rot chile Swartz, JTcurrp], ?// Jvm pinnatnm 
Presl., Mertemia pcctinata Willd.. Schiene* trilateralis Schkuhr, S. tlcqans Swartz. S. flabellnm 
Mart, Trichomanes heterophyllum Willd., T. pellucens Kunze, T. plumuja Presl., Hymenophr/llurn 
pqlyantho» Swartz, and Cyqthecf e? spera Swartz, 
