40 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE SUNSET-BIRD. — HUMMING-BIRDS. 



THE CRATER-TARN. — TEMPORARY CAMPS. — THE " SOLEIL COU- 

 CHER." — "HEAR THE SUNSET." — A BIRD POSSESSED OF THE 

 DEVIL. — THE CAPTURE. — A SPECIES NEW TO THE WORLD. — 

 FOUR SPECIES OF HUMMING-BIRDS. — THE GARNET-THROAT 

 AND GILT-CRESTED. — DAN, THE HUNTER. — CATCHING BIRDS 

 WITH BREAD-FRUIT JUICE. — IN CAPTIVITY. — DEATH. — THEIR 

 FOOD. — METHODS OF CAPTURE. — THE HUMMING-BIRD GUN. — 

 THE AERIAL DANCE. 



IN all the Caribbee Islands there are volcanoes, 

 many of them still at work, ejecting, not lava, but 

 steam and sulphur fumes. In the mountains one finds 

 numerous tarns of clear, cold water, filling these ex- 

 tinct craters to the brim, and pouring their surplus 

 flood down the mountain sides to form rivers in the 

 valleys below. How came they there, these lakes 

 of unknown depth? Are they fed by subterranean 

 streams, or have the craters become choked, and, in- 

 stead of vomiting forth water, and gases generated 

 in the center of the earth, become merely receptacles 

 for the drainage of surrounding mountains? Who 

 knows? We only know that we cannot sound their 

 depths with plummet-line, and that the water is pure 

 and tasteless. Ages and ages have they existed here, 

 and he must be more than geologist, and acquainted 

 with the plans of a great Creator, who would answer 

 these questions. 



