CHAPTER IV. 



CLIMATE — TEMPERATURE — RAINS — DISEASES. 



For a long period Trinidad has been, and is still, regarded as 

 very unhealthy; but it is really less so than many other 

 countries similarly situated. For instance, the rate of mortality 

 in this island is one per thirty inhabitants, being less than that 

 of several large towns in Europe, viz., Madrid, Palermo, Naples, 

 Rome, and Vienna. But the rate of mortality is not perhaps a 

 correct criterion of the salubrity of a country; and the greater 

 or less prevalence of ordinary maladies, together with the pro- 

 portion of the diseased to the total population, ought also to be 

 taken into account. Now, if the salubrity of Trinidad is to be 

 determined by this test, it must be confessed that the island 

 stands lower than several places in which the rate of mortality 

 is actually greater. 



The climate of Trinidad is almost identical with that of the 

 other Antilles. It is an inter- tropical, and, at the same time, an 

 insular climate; that is to say, it is cooler than a continental 

 country under the same latitude and of the same altitude, and 

 its temperature more equal. It, however, presents the following 

 peculiarities, when compared with the sister islands : a total 

 exemption from hurricanes, a greater regularity in the periodical 

 returns of seasons, and its being but little subject to the incon- 

 veniences arising from droughts and blighting winds ; the 

 contrast between the temperature of the day and night is also, 

 perhaps, greater — the latter being deliciously cool from Decem- 

 ber to April. 



In Trinidad, as in other tropical climates, there are only two 

 seasons — the dry, and the wet or rainy. The dry season may be 

 said to commence with January and end with May — five months ; 

 while the rainy season sets in with June, and lasts to the middle 

 of December. February, March, and April are the driest months 



