330 TRINIDAD. 



is chiefly elevated and waving, and the surface rather broken, 

 particularly towards Point Cedros and the interior, but it becomes 

 more uniform as the quarter of Icacos is approached ; the latter 

 is a dead level. The soil is everywhere deep but light, and poor 

 in organic matters ; Quemada is, however, very fertile, its soil 

 being in certain spots somewhat similar to the black soil of 

 Naparima. L'Envieuse and the Columbia estates are considered 

 as equal to any in the colony ; and Lochmaben, in Cedros, is also 

 an excellent property. The soil of Icacos is a light sandy loam, 

 containing a very large admixture of organic debris ; it is of 

 extreme fertility, but vegetation suffers to a dreadful extent 

 whenever any drought prevails. However, all sorts of ground- 

 provisions thrive admirably, especially those of the root kind 

 manioc in particular ; the coco-palm grows beautifully, and yields 

 large crops ; it might be cultivated extensively, and, no doubt, 

 with great profit. The whole of Icacos might also form an 

 excellent sheep-run, or be converted into a hato, or stock-farm, 

 though still continued in cultivation as a coco-walk, or plantation. 

 In case coco-trees should not be preferred, it would then become 

 necessary to plant trees for the benefit of shade; the saman 

 would very likely thrive in this locality, and afford protection to 

 animals against the sun, as well as to herbage- vegetation against 

 the blighting winds. Icacos is obliquely traversed from E.S.E. 

 to W.N.W. by several lagoons, which would supply water for the 

 animals at graze ; these lagoons might also be partially drained and 

 turned into rich meadow lands ; one of them, the largest, opens into 

 the sea to the leeward of Los Gallos, and is known by the name 

 of Los Gallos lagoon. A natural savannah stretches between 

 two of these lagoons. 



On the L'Envieuse estate there is a pitch or bitumen crater; 

 and I have observed in the pasture several blocks of fine sand- 

 stone protruding in several places from the soil. On the Columbia 

 estate are to be seen the mud volcanoes I have already men- 

 tioned. They are on an elevated spot, in all probability raised 

 by the gradual agency of the self-same volcanoes. The area is 

 very limited, and within it, here and there, small conical mounds 

 are formed, from the centre of which oozes or bubbles forth, a 

 grayish mud ; it is quite salt, and spreads around in a thin layer, 

 which is traversed in all directions by irregular cracks. It is said 

 that there are, at certain periods, regular eruptions of this mud; but 



