P148 



Men disturbed the conditions created by nature for the equilibrium of 

 her force, and these could not be disturbed with impunity. 



The whole of the extensive area occupied by the mud is now laid bare, 

 nor can the day be far distant in which the last sample of this provident 

 tree shall have disappeared. 



From such destruction it resulted that, when the tides are low, either 

 from want of constant rain, or chiefly from the impediment offered by 

 the northerly winds (which prevail in some years during the whole 

 summer) to the entry of the waters of the ocean through the bar, the 

 mud banks become exposed to the great heat of the sun, which, en- 

 countering a good conductor of heat in the colour of the said mud banks, 

 throws out such a heat as few living things can bear. The water which 

 the receding tide leaves in the pools on tho e vast mud banks, and which 

 could only be calculate 1 at some hundreds of millions of ' litres/ is de- 

 Composed by the excessive heat ; enormous quantities of fish, oysters, 

 mussels, mollusks of various kinds, especially the ' samanguaia', of which 

 the powers of reproduction exceed all the bounds of verisimilitude All the 

 water very frequently evaporated by the heat of the solar rays, and the 

 mud becomes entirely dry, taking a dark grey colour, and cracks on the 

 surface. Upon the return of the tide the layer thus cracked detaches 

 itself from the under part, floats away, and is deposited on the shore, 

 where it forms small hillocks and finishes the incipient fermentation. 



In the lumps of dried mud are carried off myriads of shell fish and 

 mollusks of every kind in a putrid state A stronger tide than usual 

 dissolves these little hillocks of organic matter {' detruits'), draws them 

 out at the fall of the tide, and scatters them about everywhere. 



Each day in summer on which the winds are adverse to the entry of 

 the waters of the ocean through the bar, the phenomenon is repeated 

 thereby poisoning the atmosphere, and saturating the waters of the bay 

 with poisonous elements. 



The mortality of the fish and shell- fish of every kind and variety ex- 

 ceeds everything that the imagination can represent in numbers. It is 

 in this ambient, infected, and deadly fluid that the fish of various quali- 

 ties, as well as the shrimps, move about, and upon which we feed, and 

 the greater part of which are taken in a sickly state. To the elements 

 of the decomposition of animals, of the roots of extinct mangroves, and 

 marine vegetation, are added that coming from the the rivers, brooks, 

 and canals. 



In some summers the immense mud plains are like colossal cemeteries, 

 embracing an area equal to that of the great number of the largest 

 cemeteries of the world unite I together. In the human cemeteries the 

 bodies lie some metres below the surface of the ground. In the vast 

 cemetery of which we speak, myriads of organic creatures exposed to the 

 sun are going through all the phases of chemical decomposition which 

 commences with death ; and it is there upon the rising tide that the fish 

 and shrimp (or prawn) come to seek their food, and which in their turn 

 serve as food for us. When the tide runs out it carries with it a part of 

 that residuum in which predominates bromine, iodine, and the terrible 

 phosphorus ; and this part of the residuum goes and spread itself about 

 the waters of the bay. While the tame causes exist, the series of phen- 

 omena recommences on the mud banks, which must spread over them 



