of the
men, who, seeing it coming, ducked his head and dropped his paddle
overboard. The paddle, being made of paruru, or paddle-wood, was heavy,
and sank, and the man was afraid to dive for it among the numerous
perai.

[The author proceeds to describe the birds and trees of the
region, ending with an interesting account of the Brazil-nut.]

Upon the borders of the New River and main Corentyne, above the
last-mentioned fall, we met with large groves of Brazil-nut-trees,
and on the ground beneath them obtained numbers of their nuts. I was
fortunate to find some of the nut-cases containing nuts that had
commenced to germinate, each nut sending out long roots from one end
and young plants from the other. The roots were all twisted and matted
together, quite filling up the cavities in the case around the nuts;
yet the nut-case was hard and showed no signs of decay, so that it is
difficult to say how the young plants free themselves. There is a small
aperture where the fruit-stalk was once attached, but in only one
instance did I find a case in which one of the young plants had found
its way out through this and sent forth leaves. It seems to me that when
this happens one plant alone survives of the twelve or fifteen that
commenced to grow, and that its matted roots, gradually filling the
nut-case, eventually burst it, when the plant is free to take root in
the earth. The strong cover of the growing nut is a necessary protection
to the young plant, for without such it would be devoured by one of the
host of animals that are ready to eat it.

I planted some of the sprouting nuts, cut out of their hard outer
covering, on my way up the river, but on returning found that they had
all been dug up and eaten by rats and other small vermin. I therefore
had a lot planted in a box at our camp above King Frederick William IV.
Fall on my first return to that spot, and placed on the stem of a small
tree cut off some five feet from the ground. In this position they were
free from the attacks of small animals, and, being covered with a
shelter of some palm-leaves, thrived wonderfully. These plants were
subsequently sent to Kew, where they arrived in a fine healthy
condition.

We found many nut-cases with holes cut in them by accouries, the marks
of the gnawing teeth of those animals being plainly shown. My men used
to open them by chopping off their ends with a cutlass, which, owing to
their hardness, was no easy operation.