h rose at least a hundred feet nearly perpendicularly, when
I found an obstacle to my further progress in the shape of some large
rocks, which had fallen from above and blocked the passage. I was
unable to scale the CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE; but the whole body of water poured
through an aperture three or four feet above the bed of the stream; and
although it looked dark and dreary within, instead of retracing my steps
to find another route through the woods to the spot I wished to reach, I
determined to force my way into the gloomy cavern, with the expectation
of being able to emerge on the opposite side.

I listened for a moment at the mouth of the aperture, but heard only the
murmuring of the stream as it swept along through the uneven channel. I
then thrust in my head, when I heard a rushing noise as of the flapping
of a thousand wings, and the next moment I was sprawling on my back in
the water, having been summarily capsized, partly by force and partly by
an involuntary start of terror!

I raised my head and beheld a legion of BATS, some of them of uncommon
size, issuing in a stream from the mouth of the cave. These animals in
the tropics are numerous, and seclude themselves from the light of
day in caverns or other dark and lonely recesses, where they attach
themselves to the roof, and clinging to each other are suspended in
large pyramidal clusters or festoons. When disturbed, they take wing,
and hastily quit their abodes. By unthinkingly intruding on their
territories, which had probably never before been invaded, great alarm
was excited among the inmates; a terrible confusion ensued, and the
general rush to the aperture caused my unceremonious overthrow.

In one of my mountain excursions, I lost my way while enveloped in a
dense mist, and, after descending a steep ridge, came upon a platform
or terrace of several acres' extent, which at first view seemed to have
been formed by artificial means on the mountain side. This plain was
level, and thickly covered with coarse grass, which, finding a genial
soil and region, grew to a height of five or six feet. Near the centre
of the prairie stood the only tree which flourished on this fertile
spot. It was a silk cotton tree. I made my way through the grass with
difficulty to the tree, which by measurement I found to be twenty-five
feet in circumference larger than any other tree I ever saw in the
island. Immense branches shot out horizontally about twenty feet from
the groun