Noble trees shot out in all directions wherever they could find a little
earth and a crevice to hold on by, almost meeting overhead in several
places, and alive with all kinds of birds and beasts incidental to the
climate; parrots of all sorts, great and small, clomb, and hung, and
fluttered amongst the branches; and pigeons of numberless varieties; and
the glancing woodpecker, with his small hammer like tap, tap, tap; and
the West India nightingale, and humming birds of all hues; while cranes,
black, white, and grey, frightened from their fishing--stations, stalked
and peeped about, as awkwardly as a warrant--officer in his long
skirted coat on a Sunday; while whole flocks of ducks flew across the
mastheads and through the rigging; and the dragon--like guanas, and
lizards of many kinds, disported themselves amongst the branches, not
lazily or loathsomely, as we, who have only seen a lizard in our cold
climate, are apt to picture, but alert, and quick as lightning, their
colours changing with the changing light or the hues of the objects to
which they clung, becoming literally in one respect portions of the
landscape.
And then the dark, transparent crystal depth of the pure waters under
foot, reflecting all nature so steadily and distinctly, that in the
hollows, where the overhanging foliage of the laurel--like bushes
darkened the scene, you could not for your life tell where the elements
met, so blended were earth and sea.
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