Il8 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



There are two things forbidden by the laws of 

 health in the tropics : eating fruit when the body is 

 hot, and bathing when in the same condition. But 

 Meyong said it would not hurt us if we would remove 

 our clothes and sit in the sun a while to dry the per- 

 spiration ; which we did, and then plunged in. It was 

 icy cold, and the current was so swift we could hardly 

 stem it, for the river flowed between huge walls of 

 rock a narrow gorge. Into the deep black chasm 

 we at last ventured, where the sun could not reach us, 

 and essayed a peep into the cavernous depths beneath 

 the cliffs. Suspended from a swinging rope, a liane, 

 we hung upon the surface of as black and dismal a 

 pool as I ever saw*. The water fell from a great 

 height into the farthest recesses of the chasm and 

 created a sort of whirlpool where we dared not ven- 

 ture, and then it flowed out through a narrow open- 

 ing into the daylight and sunlight, falling over a broad 

 ledge one sheet of foam. 



The lianes gave a strange effect, hanging from the 

 heights to the water like loosened ropes ; but the most 

 beautiful and strangely-attractive forms were those of 

 the tree-ferns, which sprang but of the crevices in 

 the rocks, and spread their broad,- lace-like leaves 

 above us. 



Refreshed by the bath, and by the contemplation 

 of this grand work of nature, we dressed and prepared 

 to scale the cliffs on the other side. A little stream 

 fell musically over the rock, where it had worn a 

 channel for itself in the solid stone, and up this brook- 

 let, assisted by tree-ferns and lianes, we climbed and 

 climbed. It was now mid-day and the sun gave us a 

 warm reminder of his strength, so that we gladly 



