Page 26 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 1/2013assured us that he would be there, that DrBones <strong>and</strong> his cronies would drive him downto the capital to catch the sailing of the"Starlight V."I had had no time to make any other arrangementsto fly back to <strong>Trinidad</strong>, <strong>and</strong> Isteeled myself to having to make the returntrip on the schooner. We left Sauteurs, shakingour collective heads in disbelief at whatwe had encountered so far, <strong>and</strong> felt fortunatethat we had at least the promise of onemonkey, <strong>and</strong> we did have a bag full of thechoicest colours <strong>and</strong> sizes of the beautifulGrenada sarpints.But we were badly in need of a bath. Terryhad managed to sit under the sputteringst<strong>and</strong>pipe as he soaked his head to dissipatethe alcohol from the night before, but Julius<strong>and</strong> I were feeling the effects of the last twodays, <strong>and</strong> the rising heat in the car in themorning as the sun heated up the day impelledus to search for the river pool thatJulius assured us should be somewhereinl<strong>and</strong> on the road back to the capital. Weturned inl<strong>and</strong> at a sign that pointed to a waterfall,<strong>and</strong> after a few miles of winding roadthat threaded its way between plantations ofcocoa, coffee <strong>and</strong> bananas, we emerged at acrossroad.Here the road widened, <strong>and</strong> a paved area offto the side provided parking for any touristcars, the occupants of which may have beenencouraged to take in the mediocre sight ofa jungle river pouring over a modest fall <strong>and</strong>into a basin of brooding greenish-black water.As we drew up <strong>and</strong> began to get out of thecar, we were mobbed by a gaggle of skinnyyoung men who clamoured to be our guidesto see the waterfall, which, after all, was alreadyin plain sight. <strong>The</strong>y mistook us fortourists, which I suppose, technically, wewere, <strong>and</strong> were quite dismayed when welaughed off their exhortations in our recognizable<strong>Trinidad</strong>ian accents. <strong>The</strong>y were alsoadamant that no one but they were traditionallyknown to swim in the basin, whenthey saw us take towels out of the back ofthe car <strong>and</strong> begin to make our way down therutted path towards the pool by these men<strong>and</strong> the waterfall.Getting to the pool-side, a quick glance atthe floating debris on the surface of the water,<strong>and</strong> the splashing mob of young boys <strong>and</strong>men churning up the water, <strong>and</strong> the incessantplummeting jumps from a ledge above thepool of these same men, who began to shout<strong>and</strong> haggle us to pay to see them jump offthe ledge, which they were accustomed tooffering to embarrassed <strong>and</strong> intimidatedtourists as a pale imitation of the cliff-diversof Acapulco. With knowing looks of assentwe decided we would seek our bath elsewhere,<strong>and</strong> without hurting any feelings welet the occupants of the pool know that wehad been there before (both figuratively <strong>and</strong>untruthfully) <strong>and</strong>, in fact, were more interestedin whether they had seen any snakes inthe area, either the sarpints or, especially, thelocal "black snake" or "cribo."Incredulity, as usual, gave way to interest atthe offer of a reward for spotting a snake,<strong>and</strong> word spread rapidly through the twentyor so men in <strong>and</strong> around the pool. As webegan to make our way back up to the car
Page 27 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 1/2013we were followed by an inquisitive group ofyounger boys who enquired what we weredoing with the snakes if we caught them, <strong>and</strong>whether we had caught any yet. We assuredthem that we indeed had, <strong>and</strong> were proceedingto the car to show them that we had notlied about having some, <strong>and</strong> that we wouldpay a reward to get just a few more, when ashout from the side of the car-park of, "Lookone!" pulled all eyes to the pointing finger ofthe wiry teenager st<strong>and</strong>ing beneath a spreadingyoung mimosa tree that stretched itsslender branches over the car-park, providinga cool, dappled, shady area.A PARAGRAPH NOTED IN PASSING(Continued from page 23)ReferencesBarbour, T. 1943. Naturalist at Large. Boston:Little, Brown 314 pp. Available online athttp://archive.org/detailsnaturalistatlarg00barb.Sure enough, as we gathered below the pointhe was indicating, we saw the coiled ball of alarge, deep-red sarpint. <strong>The</strong> tree was climbable,<strong>and</strong> as Julius opted to be the one to goup <strong>and</strong> to shake it down to one of us, themost vociferous <strong>and</strong> loud-mouthed of themen who had shown some anger at our refusalto pay to see him leap awkwardly offthe ledge into the pool, pushed forward fromthe now open-mouthed group of his peers.(to be continued in QB2 2013)<strong>Tobago</strong>. College Station: Texas A&M Univ.Press 270 pp.Carr, A. 1991-1992. History of the <strong>Trinidad</strong><strong>and</strong> <strong>Tobago</strong> <strong>Field</strong> <strong>Naturalists'</strong> <strong>Club</strong>: <strong>The</strong> years1891-1953.Boos, H.E.A. 2001. <strong>The</strong> Snakes of <strong>Trinidad</strong> <strong>and</strong>Management NoticesNew members; <strong>Vol</strong>unteers; PublicationsTTFNC QUARTERLY BULLITENS ONLINE LINK:http://ttfnc.org/photojournals/index.htmlNew Members<strong>The</strong> <strong>Club</strong> warmly welcomes the following new members:Junior members:Ordinary members: Glendon Nawrang, Orville Melville,Ravi Maharaj <strong>and</strong> S<strong>and</strong>ra Maharaj (as Family members),Winston BoodooNew life members: