292 TRINIDAD. 



express their opinion of the fertility of the soil. And really 

 the whole tract bordering on the sea, and from about six to 

 eight miles inland, including the Lebranche hills, is of the best 

 description. The surface is undulating, and the district lavishly 

 produces those natural indexes of fertility — carats, cedars, wild 

 fig-trees, balisiers, &c. This section of the island would now be 

 densely populated were it not for the great difficulty of convey- 

 ing the produce to market, since, except the small harbour under 

 Point Manzanilla, there is no shipping-place along the whole 

 line of coast. At one time it was in contemplation to cut a 

 canal of communication between the rivers Oropuche and 

 Caroni; the survey was actually made, in 1804, by Colonel 

 Rutherford. The projected canal was made to start from the 

 junction of the Sangre Chiquito with the Oropuche, and reach 

 the mouth of the Cumuto ; then following the left bank of the 

 Caroni to its junction with the Arouca. Such canal would have 

 afforded the advantage of draining the country which it 

 traversed; but I doubt very much whether, during the dry 

 season, it would have had sufficient water to be of any utility in 

 the way of transport. A tram-road would be by far the most 

 advantageous medium of connecting the counties of St. Andrew 

 and St. David with the Gulf of Paria. Population, 1881, 570 ; 

 in 1871, 350. 



All that has been said of Manzanilla is pretty applicable to 

 the greatest part of the county in general. The part contiguous 

 to St. George and Caroni is generally poor ; but from the river 

 Cunape eastward, the quality of the soil improves from a deep 

 clay to a black loam, near Morne Calabash, where, as already 

 stated, it becomes of a very superior, and even of first-rate 

 quality. The land in the whole county is undulating, or gener- 

 ally hilly. It is traversed by the high road leading from the 

 capital to the eastern coast ; at Morne Calabash it branches off 

 in two directions — to Manzanilla on the north-east, and to the 

 beach on the east, thus establishing a communication along the 

 sea-shore with Mayaro. 



It is in this ward, at Pointe Noire, that the coal formation 

 of the island was first traced by Messrs. Wall and Sawkins. 

 There are, as it appears, three series . of beds exhibited in the 

 cliffs, commencing one and a quarter mile south of the mouth 

 of the river Oropuche, and proceeding to the south, and 



