BOILING LAKE OF DOMINICA. 57 



rough, slippery work it was, with many watery 

 escapades and some falls waterfalls. Through 

 dense groups of callas, and other water plants, we 

 were obliged to force our way. At a jam of trees 

 which I was painfully climbing, I saw a humming- 

 bird poised above a flower. I had been sufficiently 

 long in these mountains, I thought, to procure every 

 species ; but this was different from any I had shot, 

 and consequently he was at once added to my other 

 victims, and was picked up below by one of my guides, 

 as he floated like a golden leaf upon the stream. It 

 proved to be a rare species, found heretofore only at 

 the mouth of the Amazon, and rare even there, (the 

 Thalurania tvaglcri) ; and it now rests in Washing- 

 ton, one of the many types of West Indian birds I had 

 the pleasure of sending to our National Museum. 



Leaving the stream, we climbed another steep hill- 

 side, and traveled along a ridge, on either side of 

 which are valleys leading to the sea and ocean. Per- 

 drix and grives, or thrushes, started up at intervals. 

 The " sifflcur montagne " (the " mountain whistler ") 

 sent up liquid melody from every ravine ; warblers 

 were few, and humming-birds the only ones abundant. 

 These, and even insects, grew rare and finally ceased 

 entirely as the lake valley was reached, and the sul- 

 phur fumes, ever increasing in volume, were borne to 

 us in dense clouds. We made a detour and again 

 took the stream, now lessened to a trickling run, where 

 everything was decaying, reeking with moisture, and 

 slippery with confervoid growth. No snakes appeared 

 now, not even a lizard ; animal life was absent in this 

 approach to the infernal regions. The trail was bar- 

 ricaded by fallen trees, detached rocks, tangled lia- 



