230 
WANDERINGS IN 
THIRD 
JOURNEY 
foot I have pulled poisonous snakes out of their 
lurking places ; climbed up trees to peep into holes 
for bats and vampires, and for days together hastened 
through sun and rain to the thickest parts of the 
forest to procure specimens I had never got before. 
In fine, I have pursued the wild beasts over hill 
and dale, through swamps and quagmires, now 
scorched by the noon-day sun, now drenched by the 
pelting shower, and returned to the hammock, to 
satisfy the cravings of hunger, often on a poor and 
scanty supper. 
These vicissitudes have turned to chestnut hue a 
once English complexion, and changed the colour of 
my hair, before father Time had meddled with it. 
The detention of the collection after it had fairly 
passed the Customs, and the subsequent order from 
the Treasury that I should pay duty for the speci¬ 
mens, unless they were presented to some public 
institution, have cast a damp upon my energy, and 
forced, as it were, the cup of Lethe to my lips, by 
drinking which I have forgot my former intention 
of giving a lecture in public on preparing specimens 
to adorn museums. In fine, it is this ungenerous 
treatment that has paralyzed my plans, and caused 
me to give up the idea I once had of inserting here 
the newly discovered mode of preparing quadrupeds 
and serpents; and without it, the account of this 
last expedition to the wilds of Guiana is nothing but 
a—fragment. 
Farewell, Gentle Reader. 
