FOREST AND STREAM* 



501 



many years Since, in which some 1.5,000 persons, I believe, 

 ivepl aw .v Outside the town, but. a few minutes,' walk 

 alou^r i i lie cemetery, where crosses and quaint 



loniba mini; the last resting-place oi many poor souls. Be 

 yom], below this place of sepulchre, is a depression in the- 

 hillside which, I was told, was once a deep ravine, into which 

 were east the bodies of i nose who died of the plague, So 

 rapidly were- they stricken down that, people euough could not 

 be found to bury them, and the living hardly sufficed to lake 

 , i lie dead. Finally vesticls were employed, and, laden 

 with corpses, iii in ' i depart one after the other into the 

 oiling with their freight of death. There was scant ceremony 

 in the carrying away oJ these stricken ones from the place 

 where onec they had enjoyed life to be given over to the 

 d wellerS of the deep ! E'er many months the corpses strewed 

 the strand, and fish from the sea were banished from the tables 

 of the island for a twelve- month alter. 



What is remarkable in this plague is, that it extended to 

 the higher and ge erally healthy mountain villages, and killed 

 lessly as along the heated coast. 



The heat in town was intense, and f was glad to be allowed 



■ art for the mountains, after having been compelled to 



wait, for my permit to shoot. Every one desirous cf shooting 



is is compelled to pay ten francs for a Permit tie 



Uhatse, which the French official, with characteristic courtesy 



to a stranger, gave me without the usual fee. It was a 



\ d H-iinient, exceeding in size my American passport 



from the Secretary of state, and, in the comparison of the two 



papers, each of which affects to describe me accurately, there 



is much food for reflection upon the fallibility of passport- 



makem Indeed, were I furnished with a few more accurate 



■:.-. I should certainly lose my identity and wander 



about in a maze of uncertainty, feeling, like those immortal 



decidedly mixed. My American description gives my 



eyes as brown, mouth small and nose straight, hair brown 



aud face oval. To this a justice of the peace has affixed hand 



and Heal. A French official, iu the name of the Governor, 



positively asserts thai eyes and eyebrows are black, mouth 



tquiUne, " visage owtfc;" and com- 



which is BUpp ised to be white. To avoid any 



unpleasantness with the numerous gtasdarme who patrol the 



country, I caniOU bOlh papers. 



Armed, then, uilh my " Permisde Ohasse," and sped on my 

 way with a hearty ban wgogt from the Chief of Police, X 

 turned my horse's head toward the mountains. 



a pictureqsue animal, that horse; and when I say 

 picturesque, X use the term in its most artistic sense; for by 

 L do justice to his many projecting points, bold 

 is and rough angularities, lie, indeed, was a horse of 

 its — good ones, too, perhaps, in u certain sensu. 

 , ; -, , umbrella from one of Lis shoulder blades, and 

 grasping his mane with one hand, 1 vaulted into the dilapi- 

 dated saddle, deeply sunken between loins and withers. 

 With a groan he started forward, putting in motion his some- 

 what formidable array of joints, aud I ascended the hills to 

 the rattle oi bums. 



Beyond the government, buildings is the Convent of Ver- 



-:. 1 - jirlsot the island are iducaled; and higher 



plateau some 1, 500 feet above the sea, 

 ii the thoGovernOrand the troops. Spacious 



buildings, including a hospital, barracks and Governor's 

 house, uie almost hidden by trees, among which the palmiste 

 r nous with its gray column and green coronet. 



: a these, my road led me to a little hamlet on the moun- 



tain uoe overlooking the Caribbean Sea, called Matouba. 

 : little thatched houses were lull, as the people of 



Basse Tene — ah who can afford it— come up here at this 

 season (the sickly season) to enjoy the baths and the cool air. 

 Through ilie kindness of a friend 1 was able to hire a small 

 room, one of two, iua little thatched hut 18 feet by 14. The 

 other half, separated by a partition, over which I could easily 

 make a hand-spring, was occupied by the owner of the house, 

 lus wife, ijr.'tlr r, and three children. Contentedly, I swung 

 my but '■■• .'o corners of the room, thanking a good 



....nee that 1 could enjoy all by myself as much room as 

 sufficed for the other five. For ten days I remained in 

 Matouba, roaming over the coffee plantations and climhing 

 the hills iu quest of birds. Many streams dash hurriedly 

 down from the mountain, aud there are waterfalls and cas- 

 cades, and high up the hill is the bain, e/uind, a warm spring 

 diffleulL of access. Tired of the continual rain, and wishing 

 society of some one speakiug my own language, I set 



i ■::-'. under guidance of my boy " Co-Go," to find 



tin- M ]. iii ling commune — thecommune of Saint 



. ' ,. . itlit could, 1 was told, speak. English. Passing 

 through the little village, i entered a higher region devoted 

 tb.cofree plantations, and climbed to a spur of the Soutfriere 

 Mountain, right beneath the volcano itself, where I found a 

 comfortable little country house, was erected in English by 

 the proprietor, who had heard of me before, and welcomed. 

 A delightful week was passed here, for my host, Monsieur 

 Colardeau, was a graduate of Yale College and had lived in 

 America, practicing his profession of physician, for eighteen 

 yealS. lie. was a naturalist, withal, aud the remainder of 

 that day was devoted to the animal life of the mountains, and 

 especially the birds. 



[ swung my hammock in his office and occupied a seat at 



his table, around which was gathered the first English speak, 



iug family 1 had met in several months. Madame Colardeau 



i if Kuxbury, Mass., and we could talk of scenes 



which all had visited. 



The ' hurricane season " — from July through October — is 

 one of c.jlms, tempests and rains, aud it was several days 

 before the weather cleared sufficiently for me to undertake 

 ,; -v.it.. of the Souffrifere. At last, one night, just before 

 the sun dipped beneath the sea, the jagged outlines of the 

 volcano snowed against a sky of blue, and my friend pre- 

 dicted a clear day for the morrow. At daybreak the Indian 

 provided by my friend came for ma. Not an Indian native 

 to the island— they were long since extinct— but one from 

 the far East, the land to which Columbus in his voyages 

 thought he was discovering a shorter route i an Indian under 

 indenture, a Coolio from Calcutta. He brought a knapsack 

 full Of provisions which Madame Colardeau had provided 

 the night before, and he carried upon his head my photo- 

 graphic apparatus, and marched before me into the mists of 

 the morning which came pouring down from the mountain 



tops. 



After drinking my cup of black coffee I seized my gun and 

 followed my guide. Behind the house, far up the slope, 

 st i etched a broad area of coffee trees.au inheritance— this 

 coffee estate— -from the ancestors of Monsieur Colardeau, who 

 in no particular allowed it to deteriorate from its pristine vigor 

 of a cemury ago. Coffee trees of many years' growth grew 

 by the side of young plants set out to replace the aged'and 

 enfeebled ones. The plantation is divided into small squares 

 a few hundred feet in length and breadth, by long rows of a 



quick-growing tree called the pr>M dnth-e, pumme rn 



Slider, This is to protect the tender coffee plants from Ihe 



wind and from the hurricanes which sometimes ravage these 



islands. These long rows of high trees give the cofi 



a| 1 Striated ! a a li-Snmv The coffee tree is 



allowed to grow to a height of but, six or eight Eefit, us this 

 insures more perfect berries and renders the gathering easier. 

 The younger plants are further protected and shaded by 

 plantains and .bananas, which attain a, great height iu a 

 twelvemonth. 



From the glossy green leaves gleamed berries, yellow and 

 red, giving a beautiful effect. In one of the sip mres I ob- 

 served a large bed of .strawberries, the only ones 1 have seen 

 in these islands. Higher up I found a species of ruous, a 

 raspberry found only in high altitudes, aud the only repre- 

 sentative of its family iu these wilds Beyond the. limitJa if 

 the coffee grove we came upon the borders of the high 

 woods, where one must goto see the vegetation of the tropics 

 iu its greatest perfection of giant growth and luxuriance. 



There is a suggestiveness of giant trees and a refreshing 

 thought of cool retreats iu the appellation (universal through- 

 out these islands) bestowed upon these high forests to dis- 

 tinguish them from those of the lowland. As you set foot, 

 over the sharply-defined line of demarcation you leave the 

 sun with his scorching beams behind and enter a gloomy arch 

 beneath a canopy of leaves. 



The trail is sinuous and slippery, and winds beneath huge 

 trees, which wo feel— for wecaan of see theircrowns— rear their 

 heads aloft in the clouds. Overhead is a leafy vault, through 

 which the sun cannot send a gleam, save now and then a 

 needle ray; and through this vaulted roof are thrust up the 

 trunks of mighty tiees, with a diameter, from buttress to but- 

 tress, of twenty feet. And these broad buttresses, which spread 

 out on every side as supports to the main trunk, are studies 

 in themselves. In the spaces between them there is room to 

 pitch a tent. Fifty, sixty feet up, begiu the broad-armed 

 limbs, which spread over a vast area, and from these limbs 

 depend attractive and wonderful ropes and cordage, of na- 

 ture's making, which desceud from out the canopy above as 

 from the zenith of heaven, and touching the earth, climb 



They are uf all sizes and twisted into every conceivable shape: 

 like bttge hawsers and cables, some, and others small as a 

 bass line and stretched as straight aud taut, as the rigging of a 

 ship. Surrounded by the net-work of lianes and llalines 

 alone, the trunks would be barely visible. But this is not 

 all, Up their rough circumference creep viues and climbing 

 plants, clinging closely and firmly by multitudinous rootlets, 

 huug with broad and poudulous leaves. Attached again to 

 the vines and lianes are groups and clusters of epiphytic 

 and parasitic plants ; some like pineapples, some large as 

 cabbages, some like huge eallas, and among them ferns aud 

 lillandsias, scores of species I do not know, piled plant after 

 plant, one above Ihe. other, in seeming confusion, i sSOh striv 

 Ihg for a foothold in irsaeiial world. Now and then will be 

 a great spike of blossoms — crimson, scarlet orjjnre white— at 

 Which a humming-bird will dart, fluttering up aud down, 

 and reminding one— the whole scena— of those lines in 

 " Evangellue," where the vines 



'• Hun > their laU,;< 

 Ou wlie->.» immune 

 Were the swift tin 



ki ttifi ladder of Jacob, 



ui?ei8, asueu'tjug, descemliuB, 



leu tilt ted Iroui blossom W nle.S3e.in. : ' 



No sound breaks the solemn stillness of this mountain forest 

 save the cooing of a distant wood pigeon, ami no: I) 

 itself except an occasional perdrix, or mountain partridge, as 

 i lilts like a ghost across our path. Up and higher we as- 

 cend ; the trees diminish in size, and there comes to our ears 

 the murmur of falling water, which we cannot see from the 

 rankness of the vegetation. Balisiers, or wiid plantains, with 

 broad green leaves and spikes of crimson and golden caps, 

 now hue the trail, and glorious tree ferns, in majesty of 

 beauty unsurpassed, spread their lace-like leaves above lliem. 



We reach the stream and tiod it warm, so hot that vapor 

 arises on this, not too cool, atmosphere. It is Sulphur-im- 

 pregnated, also, as the discolored leaves abundantly testify, 

 and it flows over a bituminous bed. The luxuriance of the 

 vegetation here is marvelous, aud pen of mine cannot de- 

 scribe the beauty of the ferns, orchids and parasites, arches 

 and bridges of tropical trees and ferns that overhung and 

 spanned this tepid stream. A few rods further up we came 

 upon a basin of colorless water, walled off with blocks of lava, 

 the overflow of which formed the stream. At it I cast a 

 wistful glauce, but could only stop to feel its warmth with 

 my hand and note the beauty of the banks of ferns above it. 

 Here we left my apparatus and plunged anew into a depth of 

 greenwood, aud commenced an ascent that, for steepness, left 

 all former paUis behind. We had to lift ourselves up, by suc- 

 cessive broad steps, and cling to roots and trees for aid. 

 Emerging from the darkness of this timnel-like passage, we 

 come upon another zone, of vegetation, where the trees are 

 dwarfed lo shrubs and so intertwined and malted together that 

 a path must be cut with the cutlass. Every native laborer of 

 these islands carries a large and ugly-looking machete, or cut- 

 lass, nearly two and a half feet loug and two ^inches broad, 

 which serves them in a variety of ways. There we found the 

 path washed into deep, cistern like cavities, down which we 

 must descend on one side only to climb out at the other. 

 After much hard work this rough road was gone over and we 

 came abruptly upon a plaiu of small extent, and looking up, 

 saw the cone whose side we fain would climb. Straight be- 

 fore us was the trail of former tourists, which climbed directly 

 up the mountain sips, so steep it seemed impossible to ascend 

 it. There was no vegetation now to obstruct the view. All 

 about us the plain aud steep acclivity was covered with a 

 matted carpet of coarse grass. Immediately above us towered 

 an immense rock, so delicately poised, aud so far-jutting, that 

 it appeared ready to fall. Undoubtedly, the next earthquake 

 will dislodge and hurl it below, to join 'its fellows that thickly 

 stud the plain beneath. For an hour and a half, with many 

 stops for breath, we mounted upward, and made a final pause 

 beneath the rock to gather strength to meet the tempest of 

 wind that howled above. Hero my taciturn guide pointed 

 out a narrow ledge where a man died of exhaustion, and was 

 found at midnight by my informant (who was sent in search 

 of him) on his knees with his face covered with his hands. 



Imagine an immense pyramid, truncated by some internal 

 force that has rent the sides at the same time, leaving the 

 summit-plane strewn with huge rocks, and reft in twain by a 

 mighty chasm, and you have the Souffriere of Guadeloupe at 

 the present day. We followed a narrow path ever sounding 

 rocks that told of caverns beneath, aud entered through a 

 great portal formed by two adjacent, rocks, upon a plateau 

 covered with a carpet of sphagnum aud sycopodium, spangled 

 with pink blossoms, wild hemp ami yellow trumpet-shaped 

 flowers. Narrow trails cross and rccross this little track, like 

 rivers on a map. It was now eleven o'clock, and we stopped 

 to lunch at the portal (for, Bince my coffee, I hatl not tasted 



food that day) then pursued our way across (lie plat fan. We 

 reached a dark chasm, made as though some Tilan had rent. 

 the solid rock asunder ; so deep that we cannot, sec the bot- 

 tom of the .lark abyss until we stand upon a nairow bridge of 

 I'OCk that, spans the central space. The southern end is a per- 

 pendicular wall, running deep down, further than I can tee, 

 into depths the eye cannot, pei. el rah' From a fissure near its 

 base atise blue hums which slain the. face of the cliff a long 

 way np, as iboiieh away down in the earth's center, -!"■ 

 ai I work, there burned a very hot Cflfil Hie- 



Wo crosses the bridge and scaled the opposite cliff, and 



were greeted a i to top with loud blasts and snorts, like 



of a high-: sure iteamer,and volumes of vapor ulowkili Our 

 face. Following this, 1 found an aperture in a mound of 



bones, l pi ,i Pi cues in diameter, through 



which was forcer] a i ilumn of stream o ill loise iu.d that 



We i iuld not hear each other speak, Tins aperture is iu the 

 centre of a desolate area, having on its borders numerous, 

 openings, whence issue blasts of hot, air that taint the atmos- 

 phere for many feet around. I peered into one, arched like 

 an oven, and it was like a glimpse into the arcana of nature — 

 into the miniature palace of a genie —for the whole interior 

 was encrusted with sulphur crystals glistening like yellow 

 topaz; and a small black passage led down into unknown 

 depths, whence, issued rumblings, groans aud grumblings. Up 

 from this black throat came such blasts of old Vulcan's fetid 

 breath that I was glad to escape with only a few crumbling 

 crystals for my pains, Ravines seam the "sides of the cone in 

 every direction, some spanned by natural bridges of rock; 

 but that to which I constantly recurred is that central gorge, 

 with its wicked-looking throat, from which there have been 

 two eruptions recorded, fine in 1707, the other in 1815. 

 Doubtless it will again, at some, future time, act as the vent 

 for the. internal ebullitions of mother earth. 



According to Humboldt, the summit la over 5,000 feet above 

 the sea, and the view afforded me, as an occasional rift oc- 

 curred in the masses of mist, was grand beyond description. 

 Climbing to an elevated rock, 1 Obtained Shelter from the 

 terrific gale I hal Dl i D mv . 1ml awaited a 



break in the cloud of mist. It emie. 1 looked upon a scene 

 well worth a year ot common life to view. Beneath me, in 

 full view, ate Mi,- Columbus on 



that, memorable November day in 1403. Par away, east by 

 uorlh, lay ■■' ' 6 U i ad seen by Columbus on his 



second voyage— a fey, table-surfaced rock. South by eust 

 lay Dominica, looking lit • vision of cloud-land, 



ihe first at which fjdluuibl 1 the Ua.ribhees, and 



cast, light below the 1,-1, i ■■; i . ■■ .-. no. whore first in this 



arciiip Jag i l-hi royal b* mis oi tip i '■ ived. 1 



looked down to the e«Btv a rj .... e , lopi '/dure, 



upon f-u'es!, almost »s Impenetrable and li -speading as on 



thai day, nearly four centuries ago, w iieu II resounded to the 

 bhsis of trmupeis and the firing of arquebuses For, the 

 second day of his arrival here, on ll I lO< H i d great 



admiral's fleet, su.-.-yed ieio the forest wi some menand 

 was loot. i.'Vir several days ill y « ordered In ! racklsss forest, 

 so dense aa almost to exclude the light of day. "Some, 

 who were experienced seamen, ell, o | ,,, tre a to get a sight, 

 ri the stars by which to govern their course, but the spread- 

 ing branches atid thick foliage shut, out all view of the 

 It ■ s.a .," a pai !>' s'eul ina - - jecnsi rei lb tvafjittg 



the many streams which number, at this day, more than lifty. 

 Almost uudertlu; cliffs- ot the the Sftintiw, « 



cluster of rocky isl its disc wered - tio liay. There 



is a significance and poetic uiuai - o every name 



bestowed 1 y Columbus oa these islands, as witness those 

 already mentioned. With few exeptions, fortunately, 

 ihey 'retain b i perfifcl appellations, Away north is 

 the triprs crown of Montserrat, eel I fancied 1 could 

 discover the dim outlines of At. Ivit's, an island named 

 probably for the goad giant who bore his lord aloft 



it. 





The Virj 



her ten thousand virgins—yet 

 secured. Wearer is intiqua, but low and dim. 

 of mist again drew together aud 1 prepared to 



farthi 



Thee 

 desce 



This mountain was once the bonne of a bird of ill omen— 

 the JKahli/tin, or "Tittle Devil "—which lived iu holes in the 

 rocks ami was hunted with dogs by the planters in the olden 

 lone. Its discovery was my principal motive for ascending 

 the Souffriere; but 1 returned without finding a trace of its 

 existence. Fatigued and bathed in perspiration, I arrived at 

 the but, bath, ondhe borders of ihe high woods, and plunged 

 into its limpid waters; but half an llOUX'S iniuieision in iu 

 lepid current removed every trace of weariness, aud I floated 

 blissfully, until the sinking sua warned me to be en the 

 march again. 



Tears ago — three hundred and sixty-five— there landed upon 

 thi3 isiaudof Guadeloupe Juan Ponce de Leou (noblest and 

 gentlest of all those Old Couqiustadores), fresh from his discov- 

 ervof Florida, liul two years previously he had sailed inquest 

 of that, wonderful fountain of youth, lured on by the tales of 

 the lndiaus of Cuba; and who knows but. that, be was still 

 seeking that fountain of rejuvenescence when he essayed to 

 explore these wilds aud met with disastrous defeat from the 

 Oaribs. I have floated on the glassy surface of the wonderful 

 spring of Wakulla, In Florida, arid oue winter's day three 

 years ago, sailed down the bright waitra of Silver Spring, 

 and do not, therefore, wonder that the simple natives should 

 invest these myslerious creations with occult power. BatH 

 is a phy thai the Old Spaniard could not have found this 

 mountain spring, one dip iu which were worth a mouth's im- 

 mersion in those of Florida 



A velvet backed humming b.rd came down from the oil 



oua banks above me— a tiny bird, with a Latin n ' 



to mention here— and dauced'in the sunlight, his garnet throat 

 glowing like a coal in the departing beams, us I bade farewell 

 to this enchanted spot and descended into the deep gloom of 

 the high woods. * 



SiPAKULB. — Among the many preparations for the bath 

 sapanule is rapidly winning great favor because of (he uni- 

 form good results"which follow its use. As a cleansing and 



healing agent its effects are marvelous. 



, IlulH 



Tnv: McXnoo liaTrsE at (OtsKASBoiio, X. u.— 1 1 .. n I 



,: ,. - a, lulj .n.i.-v, , • !,,-,' 



n rjras. suWorttj mi In tei matters, >- 



01 Ul ansD ltt», S, 0., is nuai.r Hie li-^i, apfOll tail 8 it Si 



s n htoi Iwtel ,.:,,.,,. ,, uiio. 1 , Is afavoj 



liiOK-pla'Oe for Northern n iiui-uff-.i, wim (jo to the wlUs ol North 



Ca.tnun ■■'.'■ ti . , i a owns a every, from wlUeti 



Eooahoxses may be I li te charge.— Wdp, 



traso, 



( ttio 



