India Rubber and Gutta Percha. 6i 
have thick fleshy root-stocks which adhere firmly to the 
rocks, so firmly in fact that it cannot be removed by hand 
without being crushed or injured. The leaves are deve- 
loped under water while the river is full. They differ 
in species, but all are much crimped and pale in colour. 
They are so tender and membranous that it is impossible 
to preserve them by pressing and drying in paper. 
Freshly gathered they taste something like water-cress 
but lack its pungency. As the river shrinks from them 
in the dry season the leaves immediately shrink and 
perish, and the flower spikes at once appear. After a 
short time these, having accomplished their functions, are 
also dried up, and nothing remains but the crowded spike- 
like capsules. It is probable that the plants entirely 
perish after flowering, and are renewed from the abun- 
dance of seed which obtains a lodgment in the matted 
remnants of the old plants, and germinates with the 
rising of the rivers. It may however, be, that when the 
plants do not become entirely exposed they do not die. 
This was my judgment too from what I observed on the 
Cabalebo river. But I am not sure that they grow in 
places not periodically left above water. 
The rapids were full, and so steep that the men had to 
get out in places and drag the boat through. How they 
keep their footing, up to their chests or higher in water 
rushing with great turbulence and velocity, and at the 
same time drag the boat along, is a mystery. Risky as 
the work seems, they delight in it. 
This river presented a strong contrast to the Corentyne 
in the paucity of signs of animal life. On the sand where 
we landed, were the tracks, some days old, of a jaguar, 
