One might have fancied oneself in the Wash off Sandringham on a burning summer's noon.
Soon logs and stumps, standing out of the water, marked the mouth of the Caroni; and we had to take a sweep out seaward to avoid its mud- banks.

Over that very spot, now unnavigable, Raleigh and his men sailed in to conquer Trinidad.
On one log a huge black and white heron moped all alone, looking in the mist as tall as a man; and would not move for all our shouts.

Schools of fish dimpled the water; and brown pelicans fell upon them, dashing up fountains of silver.

The trade-breeze, as it rose, brought off the swamps a sickly smell, suggestive of the need of coffee, quinine, Angostura bitters, or some other febrifuge.

In spite of the glorious sunshine, the whole scene was sad, desolate, almost depressing, from its monotony, vastness, silence; and we were glad, when we neared the high tree which marks the entrance of the Chaguanas Creek, and turned at last into a recess in the mangrove bushes; a desolate pool, round which the mangrove roots formed an impenetrable net.