“Gosh! it doesn’t seem possible we’re looking at South America,” exclaimed Frank. “Where’s Trinidad, Mr. Rawlins?”
“There to the east,” replied the diver. “Those mountains to the west are at the tip of Venezuela, those lower green hills dead ahead are the islands at the Bocas, and only the northern end of Trinidad and those faint misty mountains in the distance are visible from here.”
Gradually, the apparently solid land ahead seemed to break up; narrow openings of water showed between the hills and presently the destroyer was steaming through the famous Bocas leading from the Caribbean into the great Gulf of Paria.
“Golly, this would be a nasty place to have anything go wrong!” exclaimed Tom as the little ship passed between the jagged, rocky islands and reefs that lined the waterway. “Maybe I’m not glad I surprised that fellow.”
“Don’t think you’re the only one that is,” said Rawlins. “And Disbrow isn’t dead sure something may not be wrong yet. Look at the way he’s got men at the anchors and the way he’s just crawling along.”
But nothing happened, the destroyer passed through the Bocas in safety, and, as the great bulk of Trinidad loomed ahead, the boys forgot everything else in their interest in watching the beauties unfolding as they steamed across the Gulf towards Port of Spain. They could scarcely believe that the ranges of lofty, cloud-topped mountains, the far-reaching valleys and the interminable shores stretching away in the dim distance were on an island and not a continent. When they mentioned this, Commander Disbrow explained that Trinidad really is a bit of the tip of South America cut off only by the narrow Bocas at the two ends of the Gulf of Paria.
“It’s wonderful,” declared Tom, “but still I don’t like it as well as Dominica. Somehow it seems more natural for a place as big as this to have all those mountains, but Dominica’s so different from anything I ever imagined that it fascinated me.”
“And this is too much to take in,” added Frank. “Dominica was like a picture that you could see all at once. Are there any interesting things here?”
“There’s the Pitch Lake,” replied Rawlins. “Only it’s not a lake, but a big bed of asphalt, and oil wells, and some fine water falls, and the Blue Basin.”
“Well, I hope Dad lets us stay a day or two so we can see the place,” said Tom. “Is the Pitch Lake near the town?”