CRUISING ALONG SHORE. 213 



third day of waiting we entered the Narrows, the most 

 interesting portion of this vast lagoon. From a point 

 a hundred miles north it stretches away south-east, now 

 expanding, now contracting, till from a width of eight 

 miles near its northern end it is here less than fifty feet. 

 Each side of us the mangroves rise far overhead, some 

 times mingling their leaves in an arch of living green. 

 Their gnarled roots strike down into the mud in every 

 direction, supporting the trunk in mid-air many feet 

 from the ground. What a number of roots ! Koots 

 from the trunk, with minor roots springing from them 

 in every conceivable direction ; roots from the branches, 

 and these again with smaller roots of their own. Here, 

 a mile or so in, is a luxuriant hammock, where a man 

 named Peck undertook to subjugate the rank growth, 

 but the mosquitoes and sand-flies proved too many for 

 him, and his bones rest peacefully, etc. Here is a small 

 spring, and the water cask had better be filled. 



No sound breaks the solemn hush, except the tap of 

 the setting-pole and the ripple of water at our bow, as 

 we slowly forge ahead. 



A noticeable feature in the green walls about us is the 

 India rubber. Whenever a clump of palms occurs we 

 find this tree, enfolding in its trunk the stem of a palm. 

 The rapidly growing Walls gradually encircle the palm in 

 an embrace of living wood, till finally it is seen only 

 through the interstices in the rubber. As the tops of 

 the respective trees intermingle the feathery frond of 

 the palm and waxy, green leaves of the rubber a beau 

 tiful effect is produced. Delicate ferns grown in the 

 mesh-work, and gorgeous epiphytes, with flaming spikes 

 of blossom, attach themselves to the branches. Iron- 

 wood, crabwood, and many other valuable woods are 



