A WEST INDIAN SKETCH. 65 



twine, but tapering to a fine thread ; this, I believe, to be the con- 

 tinuation of the vertebrae ; it is about five inches in length. Its most 

 remarkable peculiarity is its long bill, which justifies its appellation 

 this is about four inches long ; but whether the sounds we heard 

 were caused by the fishes fastening to the vessel, or, as some say, they 

 possess the sonorous power independent of adhering to an object, and 

 can utter sounds by elevating their trumpets above the surface of the 

 water, I will leave naturalists to decide. In about fifteen minutes, 

 the singular " sea song" died away. 



The sun had sunk amidst splendid clouds beyond the mountains of 

 Paria; the brief twilight of a climate within ten degrees of the 

 equator succeeded ; shortly after, the dark and tranquil waters of the 

 Gulph glittered with the reflection of the full moon. Two small 

 sloops entered the first Boca, and passed us as we were at anchor. As 

 a brisk southern breeze had risen, round their bows and in their 

 wakes were seen the phosphoric particles, which some nights render 

 the waters here so luminous that vessels seem to sail amid a liquid 

 fire. Several fishermen were employed at their avocation by torch- 

 light. Altogether we had before us a delightful night-scene, which, 

 by the light of a lantern, Aikin was sketching. Du Bois, meanwhile, 

 was reading aloud, although for his own amusement, " Casimir De- 

 lavigne's Messiniennes," after the usual French fashion, in a chaunting 

 tone, and making a long pause in every sixth and twelfth syllable : 

 (e A vous puissants du monde a vous rois de la terre; 

 Qui tenez dans vos mains et la paix et la guerre!" 



Goodenough spent the evening smoking cigars, and singing some 

 two or three hundred sublimely-ridiculous stanzas, to the tune of 

 " Yankee Doodle." More nonsense has been sung to this tune than 

 to any other ever composed. Rattoon and myself walked the deck 

 during the evening to enjoy the fine scenery. At an early hour we 

 betook ourselves to our mattrasses under the awning ; the heat pre- 

 vented our sleeping in the cabin. Next morning we found that we 

 had passed through the Bocas in the night, and were in the main ocean. 

 Tobago loomed faintly through the mist of twilight, looking like a 

 long tube* on the horizon ; and, as the rays of the sun began to illu- 

 mine the east, more faintly still might be seen the lofty eminences of 

 Grenada, while, closer on our starboard, appeared the gloomy northern 

 mountains of Trinidad, covered with a thick mass of vegetation, com- 

 posed of giant forest- trees, each of which supports such countless 

 numbers of tendrils, parasites, &c., that the gigantic tree itself is almost 

 as hidden as a king in his coronation robes. Below, the earth is co- 

 vered with a quantity of dense underwood, as if vegetation was de- 

 termined to render it impracticable for man to pass over those moun- 

 tains. When viewed at a distance, this superabundance of vegetation 

 gives the northern shores a sombre aspect, but on approaching, they 

 look grand, and even sublime. 



The turbulence of the billows was so great, that the whole of our 

 party, except the American, experienced that heaving sensation of the 



* Hence its name, Tobago, in the Indian language, signifies either tobacco or the 

 tube used in smoking it. 



M.M. No. 1. K 



