The continued rains had driven the snakes from their holes,
and on the path were seen the bush-master (cona-couchi) unrivalled for
its brilliant colours, and the deadly nature of its poison; and the
labari equally poisonous, which erects its scales in a frightful manner
when irritated. The rattlesnake was also to be met with, and harmless
tree snakes of many species. Under the river's bank lay enormous caymen
or alligators,--one lately killed measured twenty-two feet. Wild deer
and the peccari hog were seen in the glades in the centre of the island;
and the jaguar and cougour (the American leopard and lion) occasionally
swam over from the main land.
We sailed up the Essequibo for a hundred miles in a small schooner of
thirty tons, and occasionally took to canoes or coorials to visit the
creeks. We then went up a part of the Mazaroony river, and saw also the
unexplored Coioony: these three rivers join their waters about one
hundred miles from the mouth of the Essequibo. In sailing or paddling up
the stream, the breadth is so great, and the wooded islands so numerous,
that it appears as if we navigated a large lake.
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