144 



I N A G U A 



Only the strongest light rays filtered through this screen; the 

 upper reaches of this gigantic vegtable mesh-work gave the 

 appearance of a great gloomy cavern. The green cavern was 

 filled with a low humming as of the whirring of countless 

 insects; as indeed I discovered it was when a horde of mos- 

 quitoes settled on my bare flesh and busily sank their probes. 

 Scrambling outside I brushed off the pests and walked around 

 this monstrous tree. It covered at least half an acre. In Kingston, 

 Jamaica, there is a renowned banyan tree that is large enough 

 to fill a small plaza; this great mangrove, for such it was, would 

 have swallowed the banyan and left room for another. 



This tree was the center and the axis of existence for all 

 the creatures of the islet. The Anolis lizards, being arboreal, 

 were restricted to its branches; the barrier of leaves protected 

 them from the sweeping force of the trade winds and pro- 

 vided the quiet atmosphere essential for the maintenance of 

 the mosquitoes and other small insects on which they stuffed 

 themselves until their bellies were distended like small balloons. 

 Even the crabs, a land species of yellow and purple, depended 

 on the mud and debris about the bases of the roots to furnish 

 them with the microscopic bits which they gleaned between 

 the dead leaves; outside in the hot sun these crabs were not to 

 be found. Life on the island existed because of the tree; or more 

 exactly the tree was the foundation of the island itself. But for 

 this arboreal giant Sheep Cay would be nothing more than a 

 bar of white gleaming sand, forever shifting, drifting at the 

 mercy of the wind and currents. Only under the branches was 

 there any hint of solidity: here the calcareous sand, held tightly 

 by the binding roots, had settled and metamorphosed into gray 

 carbonate of Hme. 



Sheep Cay had, no doubt, first appeared above the rushing 

 surf when a portion of the fringing reef became too interlaced 

 to permit the free passage of water and had bogged down with 



