246 
CRAB-POND. 
is produced, on which one may securely walk for 
hundreds of yards, probably in some places for miles, 
about eighteen inches above the mud or above the 
surface of the water when the tide is in. The 
average thickness of these natural bows is about an 
inch, and if stretched straight, they would hardly 
support the weight of a man ; but their vaulted form 
greatly increases their strength, and though they 
frequently swerve a little under the foot, I never 
knew one to break. 
On the branches overhead, depending from the 
tips of the twigs, we see the no less curious seeds. 
Each is a long club-shaped body with a bulbous base 
and a slender point more or less drawn out. They 
germinate and grow while attached to the parental 
twig ; those which hang near the water gradually 
lengthen until the tip reaches the mud, which it 
penetrates, and thus it roots itself ; those which depend 
from the higher branches, after growing for a while, 
drop, and then sticking in the mud throw out root- 
lets from one end and leaves from the other. In the 
process of growth, the roots gradually assume the 
arched form, and raise the common centre or base of 
the trunk considerably above the soil. 
The foliage of the Mangrove is dense and leathery, 
and the aspect of the swamps in which it grows 
sombre and dismal in the extreme. The sea-water 
which flows among the roots, though clear, is fre- 
quently of a dark brown colour, like strong beer ; 
putrid exhalations continually arise from the daily 
exposed mud, which, being prevented from dispersion 
by the density of the foliage, load the air in these 
