162 THE BELIZE RIVER. Book I. 
wide, and in that direction the sea is seen from Haulover 
at a short distance. From hence upwards, to a place 
called the Boom, where the river is artificially narrowed 
and shut in by an iron chain for the purpose of arresting 
the mahogany flooded down from the upper cuttings, the 
stream has a respectable appearance, and might be navi- 
gated by steam-boats. 
Leaving Belize, we took the southern channel, and thus 
had a fine opportunity of seeing the characteristic scenery 
produced by mangrove thickets lining the banks of a river 
within the limits of tide-water. Thousands of interwoven 
branches of an inverted vegetation, as it were, lifting the 
main trunks of the trees above the flood and representing 
what might be called the legs of the forest, form a laby- 
rinth of arches and grottoes under which a canoe may 
pass, and where a whole fleet of such small craft might 
hide itself from view at a hundred yards distance. It is 
evident that, in addition to the coral reefs of the coast, 
these thickets must have greatly contributed to the security 
of the first adventurous settlers who had established them- 
selves here in spite of Spanish persecution and vengeance. 
By the variety of so grotesque a foreground, the general 
monotony of our passage through this region was agreeably 
relieved. Our Caribs paddled away in the best humour, 
showing their dexterity in the handling of their little oars 
by now and then giving a double stroke to the water in 
the time required for a single one, or by letting them wheel 
round upon their hand so as to be again in the right posi- 
tion when required by the regular movement of the little 
crew, while in a low voice they sang their songs of strange 
melody in unintelligible language. 
A little above the Haulover the mangroves disappear. 
The banks rise above the level of the water and begin to 
