GUPPY — GULF OF PARIA. 
Ill 
On the 10th November at Piedmont, Sanfernando (120 feet 
above sea level) the bath (an iron bath in a partially inclosed 
gallery or veranda) was filled with water from the well in the 
evening (say about 5i p.m.) The next morning at 7 a.m. I 
took the temperature. That of the air was then 75 ° ; the 
temperature of the water in the well was 76° and that of the 
water in the iron bath 74°. The water of the well being in 
communication with the whole body of under ground water 
retained its average temperature, while that in the bath was 
exposed to evaporation and so lost some of its heat during the 
night. Humboldt observes that the temperature of rivers in 
tropical South America is from 24° to 28° centigrade (75° to 
83° F.) 
In times gone by when I had the energy for making 
researches in Natural History I had not the opportunity. 
Although I constantly traversed and retraversed the length 
and breadth of this island in the discharge of my duty it was 
always at high pressure, and I very rarely found the opportunity 
of indulging in any of my favorite pursuits. Now when I have 
the leisure the energy is gone. I found that one haul of the 
dredge — at the utmost two — was as much as I could manage. 
And considering that out of every ten hauls in our gulf only 
one brings up anything good or rare it will be seen that the 
results of my one or two dredging expeditions did not amount 
to much. Dead shells of common species came up at every haul 
of course — some places furnished broken dead coral and worn 
decayed shells in abundance while others produced little else but 
sand or even stinking mud. During my stay at Gaspari I got no 
good haul whatever — but once a fair but dead specimen of 
2 hracia dissimilis came up. A small dead but good specimen of 
a rare Solarium occurred on one occasion and I found several 
examples of a new form of crepidula which lives on the very 
common cerithium caudatum. The conditions of some parts of 
our Gulf, notably Chaguaramas Harbor, seem to be veiy 
favorable to the latter shell. Strange to say an example of a 
