er we were ready to 'do' the island. I have
taken over the collection of insects for the expedition, as the
other scientists all have so much to do that they were only too
glad to shove the small beasts on me. Atkinson is a specialist in
parasites: it is called 'Helminthology.' I never heard that name
before. He turns out the interior of every beast that is killed,
and being also a surgeon, I suppose the subject must be
interesting. White terns abounded on the island. They were
ghost-like and so tame that they would sit on one's hat. They
laid their eggs on pinnacles of rock without a vestige of nest,
and singly. They looked just like stones. I suppose this was a
protection from the land-crabs, about which you will have heard.
The land-crabs of Trinidad are a byword and they certainly
deserve the name, as they abound from sea-level to the top of the
island. The higher up the bigger they were. The surface of the
hills and valleys was covered with loose boulders, and the whole
island being of volcanic origin, coarse grass is everywhere, and
at about 1500 feet is an area of tree ferns and subtropical
vegetation, extending up to nearly the highest parts. The
withered trees of a former forest are everywhere and their
existence unexplained, though Lillie had many ingenious theories.
The island has been in our hands, the Germans', and is now
Brazilian. Nobody has been able to settle there permanently,
owing to the land-crabs. These also exclude mammal life. Captain
Kidd made a treasure depot there, and some five years ago a chap
named Knight lived on the island for six months with a party of
Newcastle miners--trying to get at it. He had the place all
right, but a huge landslide has covered up three-quarters of a
million of the pirate's gold. The land-crabs are little short of
a nightmare. They peep out at you from every nook and boulder.
Their dead staring eyes follow your every step as if to say, 'If
only you will drop down we will do the rest.' To lie down and
sleep on any part of the island would be suicidal. Of course,
Knight had a specially cleared place with all sorts of
precautions, otherwise he would never have survived these beasts,
which even tried to nibble your boots as you stood--staring hard
at you the whole time. One feature that would soon send a lonely
man off his