BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 57 



rough, slippery work it was, with many watery 

 escapades and some falls — waterfalls. Through 

 dense groups of callas, and other water plants, we 

 were obliged to force our way. At a jam of trees 

 which I was painfully climbing, I saw a humming- 

 bird poised above a flower. I had been sufficiently 

 long in these mountains, I thought, to procure every 

 species ; but this was different from any I had shot, 

 and consequently he was at once added to my other 

 victims, and was picked up below by one of my guides, 

 as he floated like a golden leaf upon the stream. It 

 proved to be a rare species, found heretofore only .at 

 the mouth of the Amazon, and rare even there, (the 

 Thalurania wagleri) ; and it now rests in Washing- 

 ton, one of the many types of West Indian birds I had 

 the pleasure of sending to our National Museum. 



Leaving the stream, we climbed another steep hill- 

 side, and traveled along a ridge, on either side of 

 which are valleys leading to the sea and ocean. Per- 

 drix and grives, or thrushes, started up at intervals. 

 The " siffleur montagne " (the " mountain whistler ") 

 sent up liquid melody from every ravine ; warblers 

 were few, and humming-birds the only ones abundant. 

 These, and even insects, grew rare and finally ceased 

 entirely as the lake valley was reached, and the sul- 

 phur fumes, ever increasing in volume, were borne to 

 us in dense clouds. We made a detour and again 

 took the stream, now lessened to a trickling run, where 

 everything was decaying, reeking with moisture, and 

 slippery with confervoid growth. No snakes appeared 

 now, not even a lizard ; animal life was absent in this 

 approach to the infernal regions. The trail was bar- 

 ricaded by fallen trees, detached rocks, tangled lia- 



