. Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana . r, agoutis and some of the smaller cats. Thefruit was yellow and oblong in shape with a large stone, andtasted the way a tonca bean smells — bitter and yet sweet —a strange concentrated essence of the tropics which excitedone, in that it differed so completely from the taste of anyother fruit. Morphos became more abundant from this point were wholly iridescent blue above — a blinding, flash-ing mirror of azure; others were crossed by a broad band ofblack, while in a third sp
. Our search for a wilderness; an account of two ornithological expeditions to Venezuela and to British Guiana . r, agoutis and some of the smaller cats. Thefruit was yellow and oblong in shape with a large stone, andtasted the way a tonca bean smells — bitter and yet sweet —a strange concentrated essence of the tropics which excitedone, in that it differed so completely from the taste of anyother fruit. Morphos became more abundant from this point were wholly iridescent blue above — a blinding, flash-ing mirror of azure; others were crossed by a broad band ofblack, while in a third species the blue was reduced to anarrow bar down the centre of the wing. Great yellowswallow-tailed butterflies and exquisite smaller ones flewabout us. The crocodiles of the Aremu were all small, noneover three feet, and were all black in color. 272 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. As we went on we were impressed with the amount of workwhich had been necessary to open up this river for the pass-age of ballyhoos laden with mine machinery. Six monthsago it had been impassable, except for small Indian canoes,. Fig. 117. A Wilderness Passion Flower—Simitu. and these had often to be dragged ashore and around obstruc-tion^ Now the little channel had been opened, and althoughfor the most part completely overhung with interlacing vinesand branc hes, yet our ballyhoo wound in and out around the WATER TRAIL FROM GEORGETOWN TO AREMU. 273 tacubas with but little hindrance. The cost of opening ithad been more than $15,000. Huge tree-trunks had to besawn through, but even then, the wood of many specieshaving greater specific gravity than water, the trunks wouldsink to the bottom like stones, offering a greater obstructionthan before. Dynamite was then used to clear them fromthe bed of the stream. In the early afternoon, a beautiful dull-red passion floweron a climbing vine became common, and we found that itsfruit was edible and called by the natives Simitu. Althoughapparently so much at
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