NO LAKES. 93 



as tlie mere leavings of the old sea- worn mountain wall, at a 

 time when the Orinoco, or the sea, lay along their southern, as 

 it now does along their northern, side. The terraces in which 

 they rise mark successive periods of upheaval ; and how long 

 these periods were, no reasonable man dare guess. But as for 

 traces of ice-action, none, as far as I can ascertain, have yet 

 heen met with. He would be a bold man who should deny 

 that, during the abyss of ages, a cold epoch may have spread 

 ice over part of that wide land which certainly once existed 

 to the north of Trinidad and the Spanish Main : but if so, its 

 traces are utterly obliterated. The commencement of the 

 glacial epoch, as far as Trinidad is concerned, may be safely 

 referred to the discovery of Wenham Lake ice, and the effects 

 thereof sought solely in the human stomach and the increase 

 of Messrs. Haley's well-earned profits. Is it owing to this 

 absence of any ice-action that there are no lakes, not even a 

 tarn, in the northern mountains ? Far be it from me to thrust 

 my somewhat empty head into the battle which has raged for 

 some time past between those who attribute all lakes to the 

 scooping action of glaciers and those who attribute them to 

 original depressions in the earth's surface : but it was im- 

 possible not to contrast the lakeless mountains of Trinidad 

 with the mountains of Kerry, resembling them so nearly in 

 shape and size, but swarming with lakes and tarns. There 

 are no lakes throughout the West Indies, save such as are 



