our steps. The appearance of the cavern was indeed very uniform.
We find that a bishop of St. Thomas of Guiana had gone farther than
ourselves. He had measured nearly two thousand five hundred feet
from the mouth to the spot where he stopped, though the cavern
reached farther. The remembrance or this fact was preserved in the
convent of Caripe, without the exact period being noted. The bishop
had provided himself with great torches of white wax of Castille.
We had torches composed only of the bark of trees and native resin.
The thick smoke which issues from these torches, in a narrow
subterranean passage, hurts the eyes and obstructs the respiration.

'We followed the course of the torrent to go out of the cavern.
Before our eyes were dazzled by the light of day, we saw, without
the grotto, the water of the river sparkling amid the foliage of the
trees that concealed it. It was like a picture placed in the
distance, and to which the mouth of the cavern served as a frame.
Having at length reached the entrance, and seated ourselves on the
banks of the rivulet, we rested after our fatigue. We were glad to
be beyond the hoarse cries of the birds, and to leave a place where
darkness does not offer even the charm of silence and tranquillity.
We could scarcely persuade ourselves that the name of the Grotto of
Caripe had hitherto remained unknown in Europe. The Guacharos alone
would have been sufficient to render it celebrated. These nocturnal
birds have been nowhere yet discovered except in the mountains of
Caripe and Cumanacoa.'

So much from the great master, who was not aware (never having
visited Trinidad) that the Guacharo was well known there under the
name of Diablotin. But his account of Caripe was fully corroborated
by my host, who had gone there last year, and, by the help of the
magnesium light, had penetrated farther into the cave than either
the bishop or Humboldt. He had brought home also several Guacharos
from the Trinidad caves, all of which died on the passage, for want,
seemingly, of the oily nuts on which they feed. A live Guacharo
has, as yet, never been seen in Europe; and to get one safe to the
Zoological Gardens, as well as to get one or two corpses for the
Cambridge Museum, was our hope--a hope still, alas! unfulfilled. A
nest, however, of the Guacharo has been brought to England by my
host since my departure; a round lump of mud, of the size and shap