THE ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE 'Ml 



for it is as difficult here for the poor trees to obtain one glance 

 from this king of the world, as for us, subjects of a monarchy, to 

 obtain one look from our monarch. As for the soil, it is needless 

 to think of looking a1 it : it lies as far below us, probably, as the 

 bottom of the sea; it disappeared, ever so long ago, under the 

 heaping of debris, under a sort of manmv that has been accu- 

 mulating there since the creation; you sink into it as into slime; 

 you walk upon putrefied trunks, in a dust that has no name ! 

 Here, indeed, it is that one can get some comprehension of what 

 vegetable antiquity signifies: a lurid light (htriiht lux), greenish, 

 as wan at noon as the light of the moon at midnight, confuses 

 forms and lends them a vague and fantastic aspect; a nicphitie 

 humidity exhales from all parts; an odor of death prevails; and a 

 calm which is not silence (for the ear fancies it can hear the great 

 movement of composition and of decomposition perpetually going 

 on) tends to inspire you with that old mysterious horror which the 

 ancients felt in the primitive forests of Germany and of Gaul: 



"Arboribus suus horror Laest." 



Among the trees are the silk-cotton, species of mahogany, 

 and the caleta, or ironwood, a very strong wood. The flora 

 is numerous, and closely related to that of the equatorial 

 zone of South America. The fauna abounds in minor 

 reptiles and insects. There are various kinds of fish and 

 of crab. The manicon and a certain lizard are eaten. The 

 only animal of note is the vicious serpent known as the 

 fer-de-lance, which lurks in the woods, the cane- fields, and 

 tin- gardens, and whoso fatal bite is the only thing upon the 

 island to be dreaded. This snake is from four and a half 

 to seven feet long, has four fangs, at the root of which is 

 secreted the virus, and rudimentary fangs to take the 

 place of the old ones. The mongoos was introduced ten 

 yoars ago to exterminate the fer-de-lance, but it has not 

 I n successful. 



The climate shows three seasons cool in spring, hot and 

 dry in summer, and hot and w.-t in autumn and pari of 

 winter. The thermometer runs from 7<i t" 86, rarely 

 88, but there is much humidity. The tropical heat is 



