Where a holm of rock and bush
splits the course its waters swarm with fish, as shown by the weirs and
the baskets, large and small; some of its cat-fish (_siluri_) weigh 10
lbs. Every shoal bred oysters in profusion, young mangroves sprouted from
the submerged mollusk-beds, and the 'forests of the sea' were peopled with
land-crabs.
At first the vegetation of the banks was almost wholly of rhizophores,
white and red; the wood of the latter burns like coal, and the bark is
admirable for tanning. In places their long suckers, growing downwards to
the stream, resembled a cordwainer's walk set on end. A bush of
yellow-flowered hibiscus clothes the banks that are less level; and,
higher still, grows a tall and beautiful mimosa with feathery web and
pendent pods of brightest green and yellow. Then came the brabs and palms,
fan-, cocoa-, oil-, and bamboo-, with their trunks turned to nurseries of
epiphytes and air-plants. The parasites are clematis and a host with hard
botanical names.
Towards evening, as the stream narrowed, the spectacle was imposing. The
avenues and trees stood up like walls, but living walls; and in places
their billowy bulges seemed about to burst upon us like Cape-rollers.
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