king's son and two or three hunters of great repute, proceeded up the river in a canoe. About five miles above Angama we left the river, and turned into a narrow creek, the tall trees on both sides of which, nearly meeting overhead, added to the coming gloom of night. As we paddled along the reeds and dense mangrove bushes, we heard all kinds of strange noises, curious birds jerked and wriggled among them, and we heard human-like voices and unearthly sounds, with splash-splash, guggle-guggle, jupp-jupp, as if rare fun was going on in their uncouth haunts. Then came from the depths of the forest gloom sounds like the snoring of an oppressed sleeper, but louder; or like the working and groaning of a ship's timbers in a heavy sea: these were produced by great tree-frogs of uncouth form, who love to reside in the sheathing leaves of parasitic plants, always half-full of water; and to these were added the ceaseless shrill cry of numberless cicada, hylade, and crickets, and occasionally the gibbering laugh and angry cry of troops of monkeys. About two miles from the river we came to a broad beaten track, leading from the creek to a plain of dense underwood, thickly interspersed with banana and plantain trees. Here Behemoth was wont to sup.

We followed this path for a little distance, until we found a spot where it ran beneath and between two lordly cotton trees. Here we took up our quarters; the Doctor, with one or two of the hunters, ascending one tree, while I and the rest perched ourselves in the other. My arms consisted of a heavy double Lancaster rifle, throwing 4-oz. steel-capped balls, and a double-gun of 12 bore, built for me by Messrs. Dean and Adams; the Doctor had a naval Enfield, and the niggers their usual trade guns." We (that is, the Doctor and myself) had plentifully besmeared our faces, necks, and hands with palm-oil, in the vain hope of escaping the tormenting attacks of the thousands of midges, mosquitoes, and numerous winged plagues and pests that abound in this region of swamps and lagoons; but it was all in vain, for they fed through all, and elicited many a hearty curse from us. As we had plenty of time before us, we lit our pipes and made ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would permit. Hour after hour passed till the moon rose, and, darting down her rays, made the flowerenamelled plain glisten like a shield. Huge bats were skimming past; night birds were calling in strange voices from the tree tops; fire-flies darted their mimic lightnings; and loud plashings from the creek suggested all sorts of nocturnal monsters. The flowers that bloomed by day had closed their petals, and a sister host had taken their place, making the night breeze to intoxicate by their perfume. Once or twice troops of chattering jabbering monkeys came and peered at us, bolting off the instant they found out we were not of their kith or kin. I could not help thinking how different sport in wild Africa' was to sport in dear old England, and I could not avoid the thought that the danger we ran of getting fever was a high price to pay for the gratification of killing a poor harmless brute that never had, nor never could, injure us. But these thoughts were all quickly put to flight by a smothered ejacu lation from the "dusky savage at my side, whose quick ear had detected sounds that were inaudible to me, and a feverish excitement pervaded my whole frame as Appah told me that our expected prey was approaching. To freshen up the chalk mark on the sight of my

rifle, press the caps well down, and draw the hammers back, was but the work of an instant; a quiet "hist from our friends in the opposite tree telling us that they likewise were ready. The next few moments seemed like hours. At last I could distinguish a heavy panting and blowing as the big brute came slowly up the path, stopping occasionally to gather a mouthful from some tender shrub. Presently his huge form heaved in sight, looming doubly large in the dim light. Slowly and unsuspiciously he came on, until a bare twenty yards only intervened between his great flat head and the death-dealing tubes of my trusty Lancaster. Now was the moment! and, with a press of my fingers, my rifle poured out its fatal contents. I could hear the dull "thud! thud!" as the balls crashed into his brain, and, with a sound between a bellow and a groan, he fell forward on his massive chest. He was not dead however, and the Doctor gave him the contents of his Enfield, and in a few moments he fell slowly over on his side. The natives swarmed down, and thinking, no doubt, that they ought to have some band in his death, ran close up to the body, and, placing their guns close to his ribs, also fired; but they might as well have saved their powder. Descending from our perches, we gathered round our spoil, and I must confess I felt a deep and savage joy when I saw that he was a remarkably fine full-grown bull. Taking a puil all round at our brandy-flasks, and then leaving two of the hunters to get his head off for us, we retraced our steps to the canoe, and in a short time were once more on our way down the river. Early in the forenoon we heard that the hunters had arrived with the head in the town; and it gave the Doctor and myself several hours' hard work in denuding it of its flesh, after which we placed it in an ant-run to undergo a perfect cleaning by those, in this case, useful little fellows.

I must not neglect to say that I tasted hippopotamus flesh, stewed with palm-oil, that day for the first time, and it really was not bad.

LITERATURE,

THE INDIAN TRIBES OF GUIANA; THEIR CONDITION AND HABITS. BY THE REV. W. H. BRETT. London: Bell and Daldy.

This is a welcome contribution to a class of literature which we are glad to find increasing, the volume before us being adapted to the tastes of a wide range of readers. It is written in a genial excellent spirit, and the descriptive powers of the author's pen carry us pleasantly onward with him, not only in relation to what he saw and did, but in much of thought and feeling.

Without stopping at the coast, we will away to the interior, where mighty forests and numerous rivers predominate over all else. These forests in some instances commence at the very edge of the sea, standing in which are trees covered with foliage. To penetrate them is a task of extreme difficulty from the creepers or bush-ropes, which ascend and descend, binding and interlacing trunks and branches in every direction. They sometimes destroy, by their abundance and over-tightening embraces, the trees which support them; and large

branches and even trunks may be seen half fallen with them, their descent arrested by them. In the midst of these forests swamps occur, and savannahs, or open spaces clothed with grass, and in parts clumped with timber. Vegetation is exuberant, rich to rankness, and as may be conjectured the undergrowth affords ample cover for wild animals of several species; the best time to behold the beasts and birds being at early dawn, when the traveller, quitting his hammock, should get an Indian to be his guide. The jaguar, its rich glossy skin glittering with dew drops, may probably be seen retiring to his lair from his nightly prowl, monkeys are swinging from bough to bough, parrots and macaws flying aloft, and, all sorts of birds, beasts, reptiles, and insects in every direction coming forth to feed, everywhere teaming with life. Repose succeeds as the heat of the day increases, and on the approach of evening the morning's busy scene is repeated. Amongst the quadrupeds are to be noted the tapir of the size of a large calf, the flesh resembling beef, and which when attacked takes to the water; several kinds of deer, and a small thing with parts of its body like a pig and parts like a hare, called the labba, the latter, from the delicious food it yields, being eagerly sought after by the hunters, two bands chasing it, one with dogs to the stream, the other in a small canoe and following by direction of the sounds they listen for, along it. When the hunter in the bow of the canoe observes the labba plunge, which he is certain to do into the water, he fixes his eye upon the bubbles rising to the top, and as it gains the surface to breathe, he lets fly an arrow from his bow. The bush-hog of a large kind shows sport and will turn savagely on an assailant, and otters are so pugnacious that they will follow a canoe and bite at the steering paddle.

Besides the spotted jaguar and the black variety (the rarest and most dreaded of all), are the ocelot and puma of the feline or tiger species. A meditative man, with a hand in one pocket and a walking stick in the other hand, would take a perilous stroll it may be inferred in these parts, and, with his wits about him and gun at half-cock, it is evident a person out for a walk must look alive if he wishes to keep so. "Certain risks and annoyances counterbalance the pleasures afforded by the luxuriant and beautiful garb which Nature here assumes," the author remarks, and certainly no one can gainsay him. He pronounces the serpents which abound, to be chiefly dreaded, the largest and most venomous being the konokos, and, though unmolested, it is said to attack man. Next to this, the rattlesnake is to be most feared in dry places; "but many other kinds are equally deadly. No one," he says, "who has not seen the agonies which the bite of a venomous serpent inflicts on a human being, can look upon those reptiles again without a feeling amounting to horror." A large camudi, or water python, in the swamps of Akawini sprang on an Indian, and coiled round his body, confining one arm. Ere it could master the other, the man's wife handed him a knife, with which he inflicted a deep cut, causing the snake to quit him and retreat. Some Indians also once found and killed a large camudi in a state of torpidity, which had just swallowed a boy of the Caribi nation. They feed on deer, and also on the smaller kinds of alligator, which evinces a digestive power an alderman might envy. There is a land-camudi, which we may reasonably presume to have some cousinship to the other, though we are not favoured with

any of his partialities, his length alone (thirty feet) being given, Mr. Brott adding he never himself saw one more than twenty. Many fine fish are found in the rivers and lakes-some 200lbs. in weight-which the Indians kill with arrows, of the smaller kind many being delicious. A caution however is interposed, for there are amongst the finny tribe some dangerous to bathers; in fact, a bath must necessarily at all times be a more than speculative proceeding, when even a walk by the banks of a river may suddenly introduce you to the formidable cayman, which we find to be the Crocodilus palpebrosus of Cuvier, its distinguishing ugliness (if a naturalist will pardon our so expressing it) being a protuberance or boney structure of the eyebrows, which form large knobs the size of a man's fist; and we should be wanting in a kindly duty towards Mr. Brett, if we omitted a valuable recipe against the sanguinary intentions of a cayman who might intrude its scaly person in the pathway of himself or any friend, the Baron intimating that it will never venture to attack a man on dry land, or even in the water, so long as he keeps his legs and arms in motion, and in truth there are causes enough in Guiana to keep a fellow's legs pretty often in motion. But a wanderer must not merely be cautious where he treads he must not venture to sit on a fallen tree until he has examined it, for bush centipedes, huge black spiders, and horned scorpions may be in dangerous proximity, and ants (the bites of which are very painful) will begin to crawl over the clothes of the intruder ere he is aware of it. The ant-eater, however, will do the revengeful for him upon these tormentors, one kind being of great size; "with tapering muzzle, crested mane, and enormous sweeping tail, it moves on quietly in quest of its prey; but, when provoked, will rush furiously on its assailant. Woe to the enemy whom it can overturn and hold in the unrelaxing grip of its huge claws."

Mr. Brett referring to Indian children under his charge on the Pomeroon, and who he describes as docile and gentle, mentions three boys, strong and useful lads, who were very expert in all things appertaining to a forest-life, their ready assistance as paddlers enabling him to visit settlements in the neighbourhood, the dense forest having no roads, save the foot-tracks of the Indians. An alarm being given that a snake had made its appearance close to the school, a search was made, and it was found in a hole, with a fowl for its victim. One of these boys, taking up his bow, transfixed the reptile with an arrow through the neck, the barbed point entering the ground, another arrow passing through the head behind the eyes. It was a camudi, young and small, being not quite eight feet, though very thick in proportion. The cry of an acouri in distress on the opposite bank of the river reaching them, one of the boys paddled over alone, and found the poor animal at the water's edge, and a tiger killing it. "Startled at the

sudden noise of the little canoe crashing through the branches, the latter retired," " and ere it recovered from its surprise, the bold lad seized its prey, and brought it over in triumph to me.'

There is no want of pluck and courage amongst the Indians. Whilst one of them was working in a field, a little dog playing beside him, a jaguar noiselessly sprang upon the latter. The Carib darted to the rescue of his favourite, the jaguar dropping it and turning to spring upon him; but this attack anticipated, he dashed at the wily beast,

burying his weapon deep in its skull. The dog, alas! was dead. Another of these marauders was slain by the same man, with a blow of an axe.

As the Bishop and Mr. Brett were coming down the Pomeroon, their Caribi paddlers paused to point out a gloomy-looking stream where a lamentable catastrophe had happened. "Some children had gone into the water to bathe, leaving a fine little boy seated on the bank, when presently looking round, they beheld a deer-tiger, or cougar, which had been attracted by the merry noise and splashing, standing behind the child, with one paw on its shoulder. The elder sister and a brother, screaming for help, strove to frighten off the brute; but their efforts only caused it to seize its victim's head within its powerful jaws. A Carib rushed to the spot, followed by the child's mother and other females, and the jaguar made off. But it was too late; the upper part of the head was nearly torn off, and the child gave its last struggle in the mother's arms." To enhance the horror of the calamity, when night set in the angry beast, doubtless scenting the blood, came back to claim its prey, raging and yelling through the hours of darkness around the open shed which formed their dwelling. No man was present, and the females had great difficulty, with firebrands and shouting, in keeping him off.

Another terrible instance of the ferocity of the jaguar took place about this time. An Indian had gone into the forest to procure a peculiar bark to roll tobacco on, and not returning, search was made for him. The second day, conclusive evidence appeared of a combat between the man and a jaguar of huge size, a bow lying broken on the ground. They proceeded, following the tracks, and a knife fastened to a stick was picked up, the blade being turned back, as they conjectured from the thick tough hide of the jaguar. Shortly after, they beheld the mutilated corpse of the unfortunate fellow with portions of the flesh eaten away, and close by, marks upon a tree showed that in his extremity, or, at sun-down, he had sought safety by climbing it, some ten feet having been reached; but the jaguar had made a springing bound, reached him, and torn him down.

Mr. Brett's book has been written with a further purport than that of furnishing information respecting matters of natural history, these having been introduced incidentally during his narrative, or we should have expected closer details. A map, and several illustrations from his pencil accompany the volume, and on taking our leave we heartily wish him God-speed on a good work.

THE ANGLO-COLONIAL: A Monthly Magazine and Review for the Colonies. London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston.

The first number of this blue-book has appeared, and as a promise for the future of the periodical augurs very favourably towards its permanent success. A want is supplied by the publication, and this is saying much in these days of serial plethora. A brief and forcible address at once enlists the sympathy of the reader with the undertaking when he is reminded that scattered here and there, from north to south, there are fourty-one colonies tenanted by more than ten millions of people speaking the English tongue, and connected more or less by English thought and feeling, while on this side the seas overwhelming