NATURE'S TRIUMPH. 461 



While this transformation has been taking place in front, Na- 

 ture has not been inactive behind. There is a large body of water 

 in the swamps always trying to find an exit, and it is only by 

 strict attention to the slightest breach that the planter keeps his 

 estate from getting inundated. Now, of course, there is no one to 

 attend to this matter, and when the heavy rains fall the flood car- 

 ries down the weakened dam and makes a greater inundation 

 behind than there is in front. The canes, which have hitherto 

 managed to exist after a fashion, now rot, and with them go the 

 Bahama grass and some of the other weeds which only live on 

 comparatively dry land. These, however, are soon replaced by a 

 host of sedges, grasses, and marsh shrubs which make as impene- 

 trable a jungle as the others. Now the vegetation forms two dis- 

 tinct zones, that in front comprising littoral plants ; and behind, 

 those of the fresh-water savanna. 



Rarely, however, is an estate on the coast allowed to revert 

 entirely to its pristine condition, as there is generally a public 

 road to be kept up which necessitates a proper sea dam. It fol- 

 lows, therefore, that the mangrove swamp is kept outside the 

 boundary line and the abandoned plantation is partially drained 

 to prevent danger to the road from floods aback. In such cases 

 the vegetation is not so rampant, but it is still far beyond any- 

 thing seen in temperate climates. Every trench is filled with 

 water plants, and the land is overrun with sour grass {Paspalum 

 conjugatum). This grass, which is the pest of every pasture in 

 the wet season, covers a waterlogged plantation almost to the ex- 

 clusion of everything else. During the rains it is ahead of every- 

 thing, and it is only during a drought that it languishes a little. 

 Then, the Bahama grass and a few other weeds find room for a 

 small show, to be again vanquished, however, as the next wet sea- 

 son sets in. Where once was the battlefield of man and Nature is 

 now the scene of an annual struggle between two great armies of 

 plants. Man fought against both, and they maintained a most 

 gallant defense, only retiring inch by inch. Now they have both 

 rushed in to fight each other for the mastery. 



For some time after the plantation has been abandoned the 

 lines of the draining trenches, and even the geometrical shape of 

 the cane beds, can still be traced, but when there is nothing in the 

 way of the flood, either in front or behind, these soon fill up or 

 sink to one uniform level. It is, however, sometimes possible to 

 find relics of the plantation buildings, as the debris often rises 

 above the level of other portions of the estate. The bricks and all 

 other materials of any value were removed prior to its abandon- 

 ment, but there were always heaps of rubbish not worth carting 

 away, and these remain, covered with weeds, to tell the investigator 

 of some future age what manner of people lived here. Even if 



