316 TRINIDAD. 



The river Cipero, which may be taken as the natural limit 

 between N. and S. Naparima, is a small stream formed by the 

 accumulation of the waters that collect in the depressions of the 

 undulating land on both sides ; its bed is deep and the bottom 

 muddy, and it contains little water till within about a mile and 

 a third of its mouth, where it becomes navigable for canoes 

 and flats at high water. It has its outlet a little southward of San 

 Fernando. The embarcadere, or shipping place, is at the extreme 

 of the above navigable distance, with storehouses for receiving the 

 sugars in readiness for shipment from many estates in the interior. 

 There are, besides this, two other shipping places which can also 

 be approached at high tide, viz., Ally's creek, on the Bel-air 

 estate, at the mouth of a small ravine ; and Mosquito creek, at the 

 northern entrance of the Oropuche lagoon. This lagoon known also 

 by the name of the Great Lagoon may be considered, as I have 

 already stated, as the main draining reservoir of the western divi- 

 sion of the southern basin. Many small streams bring down from 

 the adjoining districts, the tribute of their waters to the lagoon : 

 part of these flow from the hills in the neighbourhood of Savannah 

 Grande, and part from the district of Siparia and the southern 

 range. The lagoon is nearly twelve miles in length, and from a half 

 to three and even four miles in breadth. Its ground surface swells 

 up at intervals into mounds, which form so many islets, with which 

 the lagoon is literally studded. These mounds are covered with 

 a rich vegetation ; the largest among them are cultivated in pro- 

 visions, and one of the latter even in cotton. They are separated 

 by natural canals, and a labyrinth of ponds covered with rushes, 

 reeds, and other aquatic plants ; four or five larger channels 

 meander amidst this intrication of islets and ponds, serving as 

 outlets to the waters which accumulate in the lagoon. Near the 

 sea-board, as also in the interior generally, mangroves grow in 

 great abundance. The land adjoining the lagoon, and such parts 

 of it as remain uncovered at low tide, are of the same black colour 

 as \hQfiguier soil of S. Naparima ; and it is probable that, in the 

 course of years, and by the slow but regular process of natural 

 agencies, fresh alluvia will be gradually added to those already 

 deposited, and new land be formed whilst the waters will 

 collect into some main channel, and form a river of considerable 

 size. 



Three principal outlets carry off the waters of the lagoon to 



