There are delightful valleys below these sullen hills.  In the dry season their torrents are stony bridle-paths, with only two or three inches of water, along which the traveller can pass from the flourishing plantations, where all the forms of a torrid vegetation are displayed, into this upper region of decay.  The transition is sudden and unpleasant.  Everything below is stately, exuberant:  the sugar-cane, the cotton-tree, the coffee-shrub are suggestive of luxury; the orange and lemon shine through the glossy leaves; the palm-tree, the elegant papayo, the dark green candle-wood, the feathery bamboo, the fig, the banana, the mahogany, the enormous Bombax ceiba, the sablier,[B] display their various shapes; shrubs and bushes, such as the green and red pimento, the vanilla, the pomegranate, the citron, the sweet-smelling acacia, and the red jasmine, contest the claim to delight one’s senses; and various flowers cover the meadows and cluster along the shallow water-courses.  No venomous reptiles lurk in these fragrant places:  the seed-tick, mosquito, and a spiteful little fly are the greatest annoyances.  The horned lizard, which the Indians esteemed so delicate, and the ferocious crocodile, or caiman, haunt the secluded sands and large streams, and the lagoons which form in marshy places.

[Footnote B:  Hura crepitans, one of the handsomest trees in the West Indies, called sablier because its fruit makes a very convenient sandbox, when not fully ripe, by removing the seeds.  It is of a horn-color, about three and a half inches wide and two high, and looks like a little striped melon.  The ripe fruit, on taking out one of the twelve woody cells which compose it, will explode with a noise like a pistol, each cell giving a double report.  This sometimes takes place while the fruit is hanging on the tree, and sometimes when it stands upon the table filled with sand.  To prevent this, it is prettily hooped with gold, silver, or ivory.]

The trees and thickets do not glitter with fruits alone:  gay birds fill them with shifting colors, and a confusion of odd, plaintive, or excited notes.  Several kinds of pigeons, paroquets, thrushes, bright violet and scarlet tanagras go foraging among the bananas, the rice, and the millet.  The ponds of the savannas are frequented by six or eight varieties of wild ducks, and the wild goose; woodcock and plover abound in the marshy neighborhoods; and the white crane, the swan, different kinds of herons, and an ibis are found near the sea.  On the shores stand pelicans and cormorants absorbed in fishing enterprises, and the flamingo,[C] whose note of alarm sounds like a trumpet.

[Footnote C:  When the English were meditating a descent upon the coast of Gonaive, a negro happened to see a prodigious number of these red-coated birds ranked on the savanna near the sea, as their habit is, in companies.  He rushed into the town, shouting, "Z’Anglais, yo apres veni, yo en pile dans savanne l’Hopital!" “The English, they are after coming, they are drawn up on l’Hopital savanna!” The generale was beaten, the posts doubled, and a strong party was sent out to reconnoitre.