86 TlMEHRI. 
and running through Columbia in a somewhat south- 
westerly direction, again joins the great chain that 
traverses the entire American continent. As may be 
easily supposed, with her three chains of mountains, 
Trinidad abounds with scenery of the most picturesque 
kind. The peaks of the northern range are the loftiest, 
but even these do not rise to any considerable altitude. 
The country lying between these hills, and that to the 
southern part of the island, is, generally speaking, level. 
All the picturesqueness of the Lesser Antilles seems to 
culminate in this island, and the scenery of Jamaica 
itself is, in some instances, rivalled. A long horn 
extends from the south-western corner of the island 
towards the American coast, and a shorter from the 
north-western, the length being made up for by a 
group of lovely little islands called the Bocas. Thus 
is enclosed between Venezuela and Trinidad the magni- 
ficent sheet of water called the Gulf of Paria. 
The south-western portion of the island contains a 
large lake of asphalt, apparently inexhaustible. We 
are ready to allow the interest which attaches to this 
lake on account of its unusualness, but we fail to 
recognize the picturesque beauties that are claimed for 
it. 
As may have been inferred from what has been said, 
whilst some of the islands are of purely coral formation, 
the greater part of them are volcanic, although but few 
of their number manifest any activity at the present time. 
In the years of the prehistoric era, however, during 
which we have presumed the occurrence of a natural 
convulsion which materially changed the geography of 
Central America, and for a long while after, these islands 
