64 
CURIOUS spider’s nest. 
There he awaited the coming mass, and by suddenly 
thrusting out his long hunting staff, enabled our friend 
to withdraw himself from his unpleasant predicament. 
In less than a minute he must have inevitably followed 
the masses of broken rock and debris, which sliding 
down, were borne over the precipice below ; it was 
certainly not without feelings of thankfulness that he 
returned to the plain. 
At the hut of a negro couple, who superintended the 
Governor’s little patch of vegetables, the party were 
hospitably entertained. In the evening all slept in the 
same compartment ; the black couple, children, guides 
and our sportsman, but neither the visits of the fleas — 
both strong and numerous — nor the discussion of the 
man and his wife, as to whether “ El Senor Branco” 
was a Christian or a heretic, could prevent him from 
enjoying a refreshing sleep, interrupted only by visions 
of precipices, and hair-breadth escapes. 
A very curious specimen of spider’s nest is met with 
in one of the valleys near the mountains. It is found 
attached to a sort of Cassia, and is in the shape of 
a perfect cone inverted; the upper and largest part, 
which has a lid, being about two-thirds of an inch 
in diameter ; it is made of a white silky tissue, ex- 
ternally worked up with some viscous fluid to give it 
firmness and resistance to water, while the inside is 
filled with numerous eggs placed in a quantity of 
brownish coloured, very fine and soft silk. When the 
