52 TRINIDAD. 



there is a sufficiency of water on the bars and shallows to allow 

 of their being crossed. During the dry season some of the rivers 

 thus obstructed by bars become lost in the sandy beach, and may 

 be said to ooze into the sea. Of this the Oropuche is an instance. 

 The shallow at the mouth of the Caroni sometimes forms a species 

 of dyke from one to two feet high. The beds of many of these 

 rivers are so much beneath the level of the sea through the greater 

 part of their courses that in the dry months they are quite salt ; 

 in the wet season, however, the torrents of rain pouring into 

 them force out the salt water, and they become perfectly fresh. 

 The Guataro is said to be salt during the dry season for eighteen 

 miles upwards. 



The above brief and general view of the geography of Trinidad 

 shows that the island is of a nearly rectangular form, and that it 

 is divided by nature into two great valleys running east and west, 

 and of almost the same form and extent. As a result of the 

 direction of the middle range, the northern valley is more con- 

 tracted at its eastern, and the southern at its western, extremity. 

 Each of these two valleys is subdivided into two secondary basins 

 of unequal areas, the Caroni basin being more extensive than 

 that of Oropuche, and the Guataro basin than that of the Great 

 Lagoon. 



Well marked is the contrast between these two portions of 

 Trinidad. The northern division is more mountainous, the range 

 in that direction attaining an elevation of two and three thousand 

 feet. The ground rises gradually from each extremity towards 

 the centre, and from the depth of the valley on each side towards 

 the ridges. The southern portion is less mountainous, the 

 middle and southern ranges reaching the height of about 700 

 feet, whilst intermediately the country exhibits more or less 

 of gradation, a uniformly undulating surface being succeeded 

 on the N. and S.E. by a hilly and, in some parts, a broken 

 region. 



In the northern section the rivers are, generally speaking, 

 larger — such as the Matura and Oropuche, to the eastward ; the 

 Caroni, Chaguanas, and Couva, to the westward ; the only large 

 river in the southern section is the Guataro. Nevertheless, the 

 rivers, which from the southern range flow in a southerly direction, 

 are larger and more numerous than those which from the northei 

 range have a northerly course. The Caroni swamp, in tl 



