1 70 On the Pitch Lake of the Island of Trinidad. 



and other woods. It is accordingly observed, that the lee- 

 ward side of the island constantly encroaches on the gulf, 

 and marine shells are frequently found on the land at a con- 

 siderable distance from the sea. This is the character of 

 Napariina and the greater part of the country I saw along 

 the coast to la Braye. It is not only in forming and ex- 

 tending the coast of Trinidad, that the Orinoco exerts its 

 powerful agency; co operating with its mighty sister flood, 

 the Amazons, it has njanifestly formed all that line of coast 

 and vast extent of country included between the extreme 

 branches of each ri\xr. To use the language of a writer in 

 the Philosophical Transactions of Edinburtih: " If you cast 

 your eye upon the map, you will observe from Cayenne to 

 the bottom of the Gulf of Paria this immense tract of 

 swamp, formed by the sediment of these rivers, and a si- 

 milar tract of shallow muddy coast, which their continued 

 operation will one day elevate. The sediment of the Ama- 

 zons is carried down thus to leeward (the westward) by the 

 constant currents which set along from the southward and 

 the coast of Brazil. That of the Oroonoko is detained and 

 allowed to settle near its mouths by the opposite island of 

 Trinidad, and still more by the mountains on the main, 

 which are only separated from that island by the Bocos de! 

 Drago. The coast of Guiana has remained, as it were, the 

 great eddy or resting-place for the washings of great part 

 of South America for ages ; and its own comparatively small 

 streams have but modified here and there the grand de- 

 posit*." 



Having been amply gratified with our visit to this singular 

 place, which to the usual magnificence of the West Indian 

 landscape unites the striking peculiarity of the local scene, 

 we re-embarked in our vessel, and stood along the coast on 

 our return. On the way we landed, and visited the plan- 

 tations of several gentlemen, who received ns with hospi- 

 tality, and made us more fully acquainted with the state of 

 this island : a colony which may witli truth be described as 

 fortunate in its situation, fertile in its soil, and rich beyond 

 measure in the productions of nature; presenting, in short, 

 by a rare combination, all which can gratify the curiosity 

 of the naturalist, or the cupidity of the planter; restrained 

 in the development of its astonishing resources, only by 

 the inadequacy of population, the tedious and ill-defined 

 forms of Spanish justice, and the severe, though we may 

 hope transient, pressure of the times. 



* Vide Mr. Lochhead's Observ. on the Nat, Hist, of Guiana. Edin. Trans, 

 vol. iv. 



XXXIV. Ex- 



