orchids. Of the latter, I counted sixty varieties in the valley.

At the cocoa estate, we mounted waiting horses and proceeded to the cascade a couple of miles farther on, with an encounter by the way. I had been talking to Mr. Johnstone about snakes, and learned that there were two varieties of poisonous ones, a bite from either of which was surely and instantly fatal, and that they were belligerent enough to attack any one they met in the road. "If I should meet," said he, "a matapire, I would abandon my horse and run for it.

Probably he would not follow me far, and that would be my best chance. It would be too risky to attempt fighting him without a gun, for he can spring a long distance and a scratch would finish any man in short order."

Within ten minutes, I heard a rustling on the steep road-side, and saw an immense snake making frantic endeavor to climb up the hill. He was striped brown and gold, had a vicious looking eye, and was at least ten feet long.

Preparing for a jump, I called to Johnstone, just ahead, to look quick, and to my very considerable relief, he sat quietly watching the beast wriggle up and slide back again, and said, "Never mind, doctor, that is only a cribo; he won't hurt you.' But I confess that I felt easier when his snakeship finally succeeded in reaching his hole and crawling in out of sight.

Beside the matapire, the coral snake, a pretty fellow with coat of deep scarlet, is the only dangerous one; but both must be rare; for in all my wanderings about the island, I never saw one. Indeed, the aforesaid cribo was my sole snaky acquaintance in Trinidad and no further introductions were requested.

From several points along the way we caught glimpses of the great cascade, but were so sufficiently occupied in keeping the horses straight upon the steep slippery road, and in watching color effects on the hill-side across the ravine, that its full beauty came upon us unprepared.

They sought it where the mountain brook
Its swift way to the valley took :
Along the rugged rocks they clomb,
Their guide a thread of sound and foam.
Height after height they slowly won :
The fiery javelins of the sun
Smote the bare ledge; the tangled shade
With rock and vine their steps delayed.

A sudden turn revealed a deep valley closed by towering cliffs; every face wreathed by clinging vines, flowering orchids and parasitic plants. Its pavement was of rough bowlders in such confusion as is made by an earthquake, amongst which trickled pure water from many springs, and across the vale, falling sheer from the brink of the upper rock, a column of foamy water fell noiselessly three hundred feet to where we were standing.

Swaying to and fro with every passing air current, its lace shone with many colors where sunbeams caught it, or grew white against black background as clouds obscured the light. Like the Staubbach, it fell at last in dust, whose cool atoms struck our faces in a refreshing rain, or were driven hundreds of feet away with the changing breezes; and in humor a frisky sprite, it wandered at its own sweet will up and down the pass. At times a considerable cascade, the many dry weeks of summer had dwindled it to a mere thread waving in the air, a ladder for Undines to climb the cliff upon, at which we gazed with delighted eyes.

Next to Port of Spain, San Fernando is the largest city in Trinidad, and in some respects is even more interesting than the capital in certain of the older portions. My first visit to the old town was upon the occasion of the second annual exposition of the Naparima Agricultural Society.

His Excellency the Governor had sent me an invitation to accompany himself and party thither, and we left the station at about eleven for a run of forty miles by special train.

There are few more genial hosts than Sir William, and the little journey gave a clear idea of the parts through which the line goes, aided by a series of running commentaries from the other gentlemen, to whose courtesy I am indebted for many facts. For about half the way, the scenery remains mountainous, and neat stations have plenty of shade, for this is Arima, the well-watered-and there was little new to note.

After that, the hills levelled down to a pretty rolling prairie, with evidences of recent changes on every hand, showing that this portion of the island is of subsequent formation to the northern coast.

Views of the Gulf of Paria glistened more and more frequently through forest vistas until we emerged upon the beach beyond California station and were shortly afterward in San Fernando.

Here the party was welcomed by Mr. Mayor Guppy, as well known in the island as the governor himself, and driven to his pretty home on the hill for luncheon. Mr. Guppy is a naturalist, among his many other acquirements, and has a number of curious native animals in cages. Here was a lapp, a sort of cross between a hog and a racoon, at least in appearance, a beast of peculiar ugliness and succulent flesh; a peccary, and several other other animals whose names are gone, all in very comfortable quarters amongst fragrant flowers and shining croton leaves, where they seemed utterly out of place.

The exposition was a revelation. During the voyage down I had been reading Mr. Froude's book upon the West Indies, and from his dismal accounts half expected to see this colony in a very bad way indeed. But after finding Barbados prospering in spite of Mr. Froude, with no evidences of relapse into barbarism perceptible, I lost faith in his prophecies; and when I learned that his acquaintance with matters and things was acquired in a single day at Barbados and three days at Trinidad, with no other personal knowledge whatever of the islands or their capabilities, his statements grew to bear the impress of previous and advised preparation. Indeed, a second careful reading gave me the idea that they were suggested by a Gladstonian desire to attack colonial systems everywhere and thus aid home rule in Ireland. At least, that is the sole value that the volume possesses for an unbiased traveler, who sees in it so many misstatements of facts that conclusions drawn therefrom are set down as unreliable.

Instead of seeing a weakened government with lessening income over a colony that was lapsing into decay, I found an admirable system of rule well administered by a firm hand, and a country whose great natural resources were being steadily developed and increased by a contented people whose number is greater every year.

The Blue Book, dated 30th of June, 1887-the last issue-gives an increased

revenue over the previous year of over $100,000, with two thousand dollars less expenditure, and the Governor uses these words in closing his official report to the Crown:

66

Generally the statistics comprised in the Blue Book under review furnish, I submit, indisputable evidence of the number and capabilities of the resources of this beautiful island, and establish the soundness of its financial position."

There does not seem much room for argument, once both sides are heard.

This San Fernando Exposition, held in a neat building erected for the purpose, and attended by thousands of interested citizens, closely resembled our own county and State fairs. Not only were there many varieties of cocoa, coffee, tobacco, cigars; sugars, molasses, spirits, asphalt and timber, but the exhibit included many and excellent specimens of home industry, showing that it was essentially a popular affair, aided and approved by all classes, and steadily growing in popular favor, something that could not obtain with an enfeebled, decaying race. From the expressions used by prominent citizens, I should judge that Mr. Froude's career as a historian of the Windward Islands is likely to have arrived at a timely end.

Of the many other delightful excursions about Trinidad that are enjoyable, there is only space to speak of one, which is, however, the most curious and interesting of them all.

Leaving Port of Spain, one evening, we steamed down the gulf in a stumpy little boat to San Fernando, and took up our night's quarters in a quaint hotel overhanging the sea, kept by a colored woman, who was herself a curiosity. We were introduced with much ceremony by Mr. Johnstone, and Mrs. Glasson promptly told us how much better off we were under her wing than in the other hotel. mizzable nigga, sah. I keeps hotel for de superiorities, sah, and dat ar man for de inferiorities." With which compliment she proceeded to serve a dubious dinner, hovering about us all the time like a hen looking after her chickens.

"It is kept by a

Up betimes in the morning and off again by the "Arthur" for La Brea, where we arrived at ten o'clock, after a

rough encounter with surf that beats in there in an emphatic way, and the

first step on landing was upon a beach of pitch. Sand and rocks and earth were absent; only shining black pitch was visible everywhere. A pleasant odor of asphalt filled the air around, barrels full of it stood in rows farther up the slope, and away through the little village wound a road leading to the famous lake, whose surface was smooth and hard; a natural asphalt pavement, kept in constant repair by a tropical sun. Boats were made fast to pins sunk in the pitch, or were drawn up on shore in a row awaiting employment, loading vessels with the valuable material. There is no scenery, trees are scarce near the landing, and a number of smoking chimneys emphasize the fact that a tourist's business here is the pitch lake only. So, for that matter, is every one's else.

We were taken care of by Mr. Diefenthaler, who gave us a good breakfast, and showed us afterwards a handsome service of plate sent him by the officers of the United States training squadron, in

grateful remembrance of his heroic action in saving a good part of the officers and men from two of their boats which had been capsized near La Brea, in one of those squalls that arise so suddenly in these latitudes.

It is over a mile from the village to the lake, and the midday sun reflected from a black road unprotected by trees, was very hot. Still, a steady breeze made the temperature bearable, and we rode out on the lake, where I set up my camera and secured a number of negatives, which give a clear idea of this wonderful natural curiosity. It is called a lake only by courtesy.

Right and left, a flat surface extends over forty acres of space, dull black in color and intersected every few rods by gullies or fissures whose sides fall in to a point four or five feet down, filled with sweet water, slightly flavored with asphalt. Here and there a few scrawny bushes mark where a little soil has been blown into a fissure and given them a

chance to cling, and a pole or two, half sunken, is a guide to forgotten excavations. There are no birds, no fishes in the water, and the whole scene is singularly desolate and uninviting.

Near the edges, the pitch is so hard as to fracture with a blow, will support carts that carry it away and feels as firm as a rock under foot. Yet it is possessed of a singular quality. If a heap of fragments is piled up, it slowly levels down flat again; and a great hole left by workmen engaged in quarrying it for removal, gradually fills until no trace is visible of the depression. Where my camera stood was apparently quite solid, but the short time needed to make two or three exposures proved sufficient for the tripod to make half-inch deep holes beneath its weight where the feet had rested. Toward the center of the lake, this mobility increased until it assumed visible speed, seeming to advance toward the middle with a motion like that of a land-slide-slow, steady and gliding. Here the pitch grew so soft as to be perceptibly liquid and hot enough to char paper, yet devoid of adhesive quality. A stick thrust into the mass was withdrawn without any pitch adherent to it, and a ball could be moulded in the hands that remained quite undefiled.

The amount exported last year was about thirty-six thousand tons, without the smallest apparent diminution of quantity, and it may well prove what it appears to be, an inexhaustible source of future supply and of income to the colony.

From the lake a lovely road brought us back to the village, winding between the richest display of tropical verdure I had ever seen, a natural pavement through a natural park. Wonderful

orchids blossomed on wonderful trees.. gaily painted birds fluttered amongst wild flowers of gorgeous hues and unknown names, and clear brooks of sweet water wound their way down to the near sea between banks whose dark brown color told of pitchy origin; and when we emerged from those thick recesses upon the beach, our horses' feet sounded hollow as they swiftly trod a shore that was of the same material.

Even under the sea it still exists, and possibly forms ocean's bed across to Venezuela, upon whose shores, only a few miles away, similar deposits of like nature occur. The Indians had a pretty legend of its origin:

Ages ago the place where is now the lake, was land of such marvellous fertility in yield of pine-apples, that it was chosen by the Chaima tribe for their home. Actuated by some evil spirit, they began to kill the pretty humming-birds ("iere" in their musical tongue) although they knew them to hold in shining coats of feathers their ancestors' spirits; and the Great Father, enraged at such impiety, sank their town and its people in a single night, replacing it with this monument of asphalt as a warning to future sinners.

With this imperfect sketch of the Island of the Trinity, my readers must rest content; a magazine article will not permit more. If it shall give an impetus in that direction to any tourist or seeker after health who has not marked out a path for another winter holiday, it will have fulfilled part of its raison d'etre; and in conclusion, I can heartily say that of all sunny islands of the south, there is none whose perfect beauty, whose wonderful healthfulness and whose courteous, cordial inhabitants make a more attractive winter home.