Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/318

1484 more than one occasion in the water itself. This lizard, which attains the length of five feet, is perfectly harmless, and is much prized as food ; while with respect to the snakes, it is fortunate that compara- ratively few are poisonous. One evening, while silently stealing along the water's edge to get a shot at a white duck, I inadvertently put my bare foot upon a small snake, which, instead of turning round upon me and biting, instantly dashed into the water and escaped.

After having afforded a morning meal to some thousands of hungry mosquitos, we usually proceeded homewards, when the sun was rapidly becoming too powerful for travelling under. Breakfast over, and our pipes lit, we proceeded to skin the spoils of the morning, an operation occasionally retarded by myriads of ants, attracted by the scraps of flesh. The bill, legs, feet, eyelids, &c. required to be washed over with a solution of corrosive sublimate, and it was also necessary that the under surface of the wing at the carpal joint and the tarsus (except in very small birds) should be slit up, the muscles and tendons remo- ved, and arsenical soap applied. In the evening another visit was paid to the lagoon, and some more specimens procured ; at sunset we returned, packed up the skins which had been drying in the sun all day, and adjourned to a huge fire upon the beach, around which was usually assembled a large and motly party of whites and blacks, men, women and children. The abundant supply of game and fish enabled us to maintain a bountiful table, and numbers of aborigines frequented our camp for a share of the good things. We took care to turn these re-unions to some account, by extending our acquaintance with their language, manners and customs. At an early hour we retired to rest sub dio ; one slept in the boat anchored off shore thirty or forty yards, the other in his blanket laid himself down by the fire, and gradually fell asleep while concocting some ingenious plan for the extermination of the whole genus Culex.

And now having given you the bright side of the picture, the reverse I leave to your own fertile imagination.