28 
AMUSING INCIDENT. 
clustering among tlie brandies of tlie trees. The 
buff corolla of Thimbergia rivals in its modest 
beauty the gaudy passion-flowers that hang in rich 
clusters ; and in the dark sequestered nooks many 
a jialmate frond and feathery spray shoot up in all 
their elegance and beauty. 
During our ramble an amusing incident occurred. 
, Some of our party had been reading Edgar Poe’s 
mysterious and imaginative story of the Gold 
Bug/’ and, what is more, actually believed in the 
existence of such a wondrous insect. As if to con- 
firm them in this belief, and to prove the precious 
bug to be no myth or fabulous creature of the 
poet’s brain, I captured in my sweeping-net one of 
tliose splendid glittering tortoise - beetles named 
Cassidas, the wings and body of which are 
fashioned as it -were of bimiished gold. With 
laudable pride, I think, and with some exultation, I 
displayed my prize, but, with questionable veracity, 
I also proclaimed it to be the veritable “ Gold Bug ” 
of the American author. One of my companions, 
now wandering in the wilds of Borneo, a creature 
