f its small brother. Several others followed. Even Duppo, in
spite of his late fright, could not help bursting out laughing. The
colour of the big toad was a brownish-olive and white below; but the
head was most extraordinary, as it had a snout almost pointed, the
nostrils forming a kind of leathery tube. The creature was, I at once
guessed, the Surinam toad--_Pipa Americana_--which I knew was found, not
only in Surinam, but in other parts of this region. It is, though one
of the ugliest of its race, one of the most interesting. The male toad,
as soon as the eggs are laid, takes them in its paws, and places them on
the back of the female. Here, by means of a glutinous secretion, they
adhere, and are imbedded, as it were, in a number of cells formed for
them in the skin. Ultimately a membrane grows over the cells and closes
them up. The eggs are here hatched, and the young remain in them till
their limbs have grown and they can manage to take care of themselves.
The skin of the back is very thick, and allows room for the formation of
the cells, each of which is sufficiently large to contain a small-sized
bean placed in it edgeways. As soon as the brood have left the cells,
they are again closed, giving a very wrinkled appearance to the back.
Duppo made signs to me that the creature was good to eat; but I must
say, I should have been very hard pressed for food before I should have
been tempted to try it. I succeeded in dragging True away, and
prevented him interfering with the family arrangements of the wonderful
_batrachian_.

We met with several other curious frogs and toads, but the creatures
which abounded everywhere, and unfortunately surpassed all others in
numbers, were the ants--_termites_. The termites, I should remark,
differ from the true ants by appearing out of the egg with their limbs
formed, and in the same shape they bear through life. Some we met with
in our walk were an inch and a quarter in length, and stout in
proportion. The creatures were marching in single file, coming out from
a hole formed in the roots of a small tree. I took up one to examine
it, and received a sting for my pains, but the pain soon went off. We
all suffered much more from the stings of several smaller ants,
especially the fire-ants, by which we had on more than one occasion been
attacked.

Although I had twice before made the trip through the forest, I still
felt certain that we were far from the hut, when Duppo