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GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION. 67 



vallies than the above mentioned are known, except the valley 

 of Labranche and that of Guaracara in the central range. 



Trinidad, being a comparatively newly-settled island, presents 

 in many parts the appearance of a wild unreclaimed country. 

 It is covered with dense and lofty forests ; the heavy appearance 

 of an endless woodland being only broken here and there by 

 vast savannahs, or by the efforts of agricultural industry, 

 except perhaps at the Naparimas, where an extensive district is 

 under uninterrupted cultivation. Even where cacao and coffee 

 are cultivated, the country still preserves the appearance of forest- 

 land, since those plants are protected by the shade of the " Bois 

 Immortel," a tree which attains a considerable size. 



A cacao plantation forms of itself a most charming prospect. 

 The trees are planted at twelve or fifteen feet apart, and range 

 from about twenty-five to thirty-five feet in height ; the leaves 

 are large, and when young, of a violet-red hue : whilst from the 

 larger branches and the stem, hang red, yellow, green, or dark 

 crimson pods, the " Immortel" itself forming a striking feature 

 in the scenery. In January and February, the latter exchanges its 

 leaves for a thick covering of bright red blossoms, the ground 

 underneath being literally carpeted with flowers, whilst birds of 

 various species, and of the most brilliant plumage, join in gay 

 concert above. Several other trees become, at certain periods, 

 like the " Immortel," a regular mass of flowers. Those of the 

 Poui are of a brilliant yellow : of the Roble, an orange colour, and 

 very fragrant : others, again, are white, pink, or violaceous. 



;The bamboo grows in clusters of hollow jointed reeds, and 

 rms, as it were, an immense sheaf, about fifty feet high, from 

 six to ten feet in diameter, and containing above one hundred 

 stems, surmounted by a foliage resembling an assemblage of 

 waving plumes. Sometimes they grow on each side of a river 

 for several miles, their feathery summits uniting overhead, at 

 intervals, in immense arches. 



From some of the hills the view is often most beautiful. At 

 the foot of the hill extensive cane-fields ; a little further, that red 

 tract marks out a cacao plantation, beyond which is the Caroni 

 savannah : and further yet, the expanse of the placid gulf, with 

 the merchantmen lying at anchor in the roadstead, or beating up 

 for the port. 



A person visiting the island would meet with but very few 



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