96 ACCOUNT OF THE MUD VOLCANOES IN TRINIDAD. 



may be called terra Jirma, may be supposed, till examined, 

 to have arisen from the plain, through the means of some si- 

 milar elaboratory in the works of nature. I have said, till exa- 

 mined, — for its approaches are so barred by the thickest woods, 

 and deepest swamps, where the boa*, the alligator, and all 

 the venomous reptiles of the parent continent, still retain the 

 sovereignty of the soil, that the most determined and enterpri- 

 sing have never yet been able to penetrate to its base. 



* Even the rattlesnake, we were assured, was found liere, one having been kill- 

 ed on the banks of the Guanapo the day before we visited it. The no less venomous 

 niapapi (lance dufer of the French) more formidable on account of his irritable 

 nature, and greater size (one was killed in the Napoareme eleven feet long), comes 

 occasionally into the cultivated country, as well as the smaller poisonous coral 

 snake and others. I have not heard that the dangerous viper of St Lucia and 

 Martinique has been seen in Trinidad ; but the abundance of the boa and alliga- 

 tor was manifested to a degree that could not otherwise have been believed, when 

 the great savanah of the eastern marsh, and the underwood of the grand lagoon, 

 were fired during a very dry season several years ago. This brought all to light 

 from their different hiding places, and the dead carcases, as marked by the hover- 

 ing of the vulture and carrion crow, were so numerous, that the air was infected 

 for miles with the stench 



