Edge of the Jungle, page 1 by William Beebe
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ith the exception of A Tropic Garden which refers to the Botanical Gardens of Georgetown, all deal with the jungle immediately about the Tropical Research Station of the New York Zoological Society, situated at Kartabo, at the junction of the Cuyuni and Mazaruni Rivers, in British Guiana.
For the accurate identification of the more important organisms mentioned, a brief appendix of scientific names has been prepared.
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CHAPTER PAGE
I THE LURE OF KARTABO 3
II A JUNGLE CLEARING 34
III THE HOME TOWN OF THE ARMY ANTS 58
IV A JUNGLE BEACH 90
V A BIT OF USELESSNESS 112
VI GUINEVERE THE MYSTERIOUS 123
VII A JUNGLE LABOR UNION 149
VIII THE ATTAS AT HOME 172
IX HAMMOCK NIGHTS 195
X A TROPIC GARDEN 230
XI THE BAY OF BUTTERFLIES 252
XII SEQUELS 274
APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES 295
INDEX 299
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EDGE OF THE JUNGLE
"For the true scientific method is this: To trust no statements without verification, to test all things as rigorously as possible, to keep no secrets, to attempt no monopolies, to give out one's best modestly and plainly, serving no other end but knowledge."
H. G. WELLS.
I
THE LURE OF KARTABO
A house may be inherited, as when a wren rears its brood in turn within its own natal hollow; or one may build a new home such as is fashioned from year to year by gaunt and shadowy herons; or we may have it built to order, as do the drones of the wild jungle bees. In my case, I flitted like a hermit crab from one used shell to another. This little crustacean, living his oblique life in the shallows, changes doorways when his home becomes too small or hinders him in searching for the things which he covets in life. The difference between our estates was that the hermit crab sought only for food, I chiefly for strange new facts--which was a dist