CATARACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 157 



jasper, and such other bodies as may readily be supposed to 

 arise from the modified action of heat on such vegetable and 

 earthy materials as the waters are known actually to deposit. 

 They would further perceire no very vague traces of subterranean 

 fire, by which these changes may have been effected and the 

 whole tract elevated above the ordinary level of the general loose 

 soil of the country : as for instance, hot springs, the vortices 

 above mentioned, the frequent occurrence of earthquakes, and 

 two singular semi-volcanic mounds at Point Jcaque, which, though 

 uot very near, throw light on the general character of the country. 

 Without pledging myself to any particular system of geology, 

 I confess an explanation similar to this appears to me sufficiently 

 probable, and consonant with the known phenomena of nature. 

 A vast river, like the Oroonoco, must for ages have rolled down 

 great quantities of woody and vegetable bodies, which from certain 

 causes, as the influence of currents and eddies,- may have been, 

 arrested and accumulated in particular places; they may there have 

 undergone those transformations and chemical changes which vari- 

 ous vegetable substances similarly situated have been proved to 

 suffer in other parts of the world. An accidental fire, such as is 

 known frequently to occur in the bowels of the earth, may then 

 have operated in separating and driving off the newly formed bitu- 

 men more or less combined with siliceous and argillaceous earths, 

 which forcing its way through the surface, and afterwards becoming 

 inspissated by exposure to the air, may have occasioned such scenes 

 as I have ventured to describe. The only other country accurately 

 resembling this part of Trinidad, of which I recollect to have read, 

 is that which borders on the Gulf ofTaman in CrimTartary : from 

 the representation of travellers, springs of naphta and petroleum 

 equally abound, and they describe volcanic mounds precisely 

 similar to those of Point Icaque. Pallas' s explanation of their 

 origin seems to me very satisfactory ; and I think it not improbable 

 that the river Don and Sea of Azof may have acted the same part 

 in producing these appearances in the one case, as the Oroonoco and 

 Gulf of Paria appear to have done in the other*. It may be 

 supposed that the destruction of a forest, or perhaps even a great 



* Vide Universal Magazine for February 1808, Mrs. Outline's Tour in th 

 Tauride, or Voyages de Paulas. 



