First, the innumerable dry fruits of Timit palm, which lay everywhere; mostly single, some double, a few treble, from coalition, I suppose, of the three carpels which every female palm flower ought to have, but of which it usually develops only one.

They may have been brought down the lagoon from inland by floods; but the common belief is, that most of them come from the Orinoco itself, as do also the mighty logs which lie about the beach in every stage of wear and tear; and which, as fast as they are cut up and carried away, are replaced by fresh ones.

Some of these trees may actually come from the mainland, and, drifting into this curving bay, be driven on shore by the incessant trade wind.

But I suspect that many of them are the produce of the island itself; and more, that they have grown, some of them, on the very spot where they now lie.

For there are, I think, evidences of subsidence going on along this coast.