NATURAL PHENOMENA. 
61 
in extent, and lying near to tlie sea, its waters ebb and 
flow with the tide. At high water a canoe can be 
X)addled along the main courses, and seated in his canoe 
the hunter cautiously approaches his game. At low 
water the scene is entirely changed, and presents a most 
unsightly aspect to the eye, and also offends the senses 
by the strong and unwholesome effluvium which fills 
the air, exhaling under the influence of the sun’s rays. 
The lagoon is covered with a thick growth of mangrove, 
whose roots form an inextricable net- work. This growth 
O 
of mangrove forms an inexhaustible wood-yard, for as 
constantly as the axe is plied, the vigorous vegetable 
life keeps up the supply. 
The town of Port of Spain is supplied with fuel from 
the mangrove swamps, as no coal is used for cixlinar}' 
purposes.- Mangrove firewood and charcoal supply the 
kitchens of the country with fuel. 
This unwholesome vegetable growth is useful for 
another purpose besides that of supplying us with 
firewood. It is the best defence possible against the 
approaches of the sea. In many parts of the coast the 
sea is constantly making inroads upon the land; and 
nothing is' so effectual to resist its encroachments as 
a living sea wall of mangroves. Some declare that the 
mangrove not only preserves the soil from the depreda- 
tions of the waves, but that it really makes land by 
growing out into the sea, and by retaming everything 
that once enters the net-work of its roots. I have 
spoken of it as unwholesome; and so productive of 
fever do some planters consider it, that they will not 
plant it, nor allow it to grow, even though the sea 
should wash away some of their laud. And 'when it 
comes to be a question between fever and land in a 
country like Trinidad, where land is plentiful and man- 
grove fever dangerous, the matter is soon decided : men 
dislike fever more than they value land. Hence the 
wavelets of the gulf are allowed to frolic with the yield- 
ing, though complaining shore. 
