66 
BLUEFIELDS. 
{Lumbricus)^ very much like those of our gardens in 
appearance, but two or three times as large, and 
glossed with more vivid prismatic reflections, were 
also found. But what I considered the greatest cu- 
riosity was a small PeripatuSf which I suspect to be 
different from the species found by the Rev. Lands- 
downe Guilding at St. Vincent’s. It is a curious 
creature, and I certainly think rather allied to the 
Annellida than to the Mollusca, It is of a velvety 
appearance, of a blackish-brown hue, the tentacles 
tipped with white. From these latter organs there 
exudes, when the animal is touched, a thick gluti- 
nous substance, as adhesive as birdlime. It crawls 
about as fast as a caterpillar of a Bombyx, and much 
in the same manner. The skin repelled both water 
and spirit when immersed. When put into the 
latter, a considerable quantity of milky fluid was 
poured from the mouth. The animal was rather 
scarce, only five or six specimens having been dis- 
covered, all under the stones ; one was twice as large 
as any of the others. 
Immediately above the piece of ground in which 
these researches were made, the mountain rises into 
a conical peak of considerable elevation, though not 
the very loftiest. It is covered with the original 
forest, all in the rude luxuriant wildness that it bore 
in the days when the glories of these Hesperides first 
burst upon Europeans’ astonished eyes. The gloom 
of the interior is so sombre, and its contrast with the 
effulgence of the sunshine without so great, as almost 
to deter one from penetrating it. I certainly felt a 
