moon of northern climes. The resplendency of that constellation of fixed stars, called the milky way, is grand and delightful. These effects arise from the great rarity of the atmosphere; on account of which also, there is scarcely any twilight.

There are two rainy seasons in the year; one of which generally begins in April, and continues during the month of May; the other commences in September, and concludes. about the end of October. The former season produces but light showers in comparison of the torrents of rain which fall in the latter. The rain in the former season, too, seldom continues long, frequently breaking up in thunder storms at noon, after which, a rich vegetation and a smiling verdure, indescribably beautiful, gladden the sight. After this short season of moisture, the weather becomes dry, settled, and salubrious; no cloud obscures the firmament; the lord of day shines with a glorious lustre; the blue sky blazes; and the summer of the new world reigns in full glory. In this state, the weather continues till the middle of August, when the diurnal breeze often intermits, calms frequently smooth the surface of the sea, while the air becomes sultry and suffocating. During the next four weeks, dead calms and light winds generally prevail; and, at this time, the thermometer sometimes rises to 90°. These are the preludes to the great rainy season, in which the waters literally pour down in torrents; the banks of the rivers are overflowed; the roads become impassable; the grounds at the bottom of the hills are covered with water; and the earth seems threatened with a second deluge.

The soil of Jamaica is, in many places, deep and fertile; yet, owing to the extreme inequality of surface, the quantity of rich, productive land, is but small, in proportion to the whole. The greater part, too, of what has been cultivated, is of a middling quality, and requires labour and manure to make

it yield liberally. And though, from the heat of the climate, vegetation is quickly produced, yet this island cannot, on the whole, be deemed very productive. For it is a fact, that it contains nearly four millions of acres, scarcely one half of which is yet located, or taken up, by grants from the crown. Thus, it appears, that one half of the lands is considered of no value, as the taking out of a patent is but a trifling expence; and of the other half, perhaps not more than one million of acres are cultivated. But though nearly one half of the island be incapable of improvement, yet such is the powerful influence of great and continual moisture, that the mountains are covered with extensive woods, containing excellent timbers, some of them of prodigious growth and solidity. As the country is abundantly wooded, it is equally well watered. There are one hundred rivers, which take their rise in the mountains, and run, many of them, with great rapidity to the sea. None of them are deep enough to be navigable, if we except, perhaps, Black river, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, which, flowing, for the most part, through a level country, is the deepest river in the island, and admits canoes and flat-bottomed boats to the distance of thirty miles from its mouth.

The trees which cover and adorn the mountains, are various, numerous, and beautiful. Many of them rise to a prodigious height, as the papaw and the palmeto-royal, the latter of which is frequently found one hundred and forty feet high. The following are also of an enormous size, and are so compact as to sink in water; lignum vitæ, dog-wood, iron-wood, pigeonwood, green-heart, braziletto, and bully-trees. The mahogany, the cedar, the ceiba or wild cotton-tree, and the fig-tree, are all of a gigantic growth. Some of these, as for instance, the two former, exhibit trunks which measure ninety feet from the base to the limbs. The ceiba, when hollowed out,

has been known to furnish a boat, capable of containing one hundred persons. These trees serve many useful purposes; and some of them, as the mahogany, lignum vitæ, &c. have become articles of commerce. Of softer kinds of wood, for boards and shingles, the species are innumerable; and there are many well adapted for cabinet-work, such as the bread-nut, the wild lemon, and several others.

The fruits which grow spontaneously in Jamaica, can scarcely be equalled by the fairest portions of the old world, whether we consider their beauty, richness, or variety. Among these, are the annana, or pine-apple, custard apple, tamarind, papaw, guava, sweet-sop, cushew-apple, cocoa-nut, star-apple, grenadilla, avocado-pear, hog-plum, pindal-nut, nesbury, mammee, sapota, Spanish-gooseberry, and prickly-pear. The orange, Seville and China, which are excellent, and grow in great abundance, the lemon, lime, and shaddock, the vine, melon, fig, and pomegranate, were, in all probability, introduced by the Spaniards. The peach, the strawberry, and the rose-apple, have been introduced by English settlers; but, except on the tops of the highest mountains, they attain to no great perfection. A botanical garden was established in the year 1773, under the sanction, and at the expence, of the house of assembly, which now contains many valuable exotics. In the year 1782, Admiral Rodney captured a French ship from the island of Bourbon, which was carrying a valuable cargo of oriental plants, such as the genuine cinnamon, the mango, and many others, to Cape François in St. Domingo: He generously presented these plants to the island of Jamaica. They have since been industriously propagated; and the cinnamon may be said to be naturalized. Seven plantations of it have been established; and one planter has been known to set, at one

time, fifty thousand plants. The mango is a delicious fruit, and has almost become as plentiful as the orange.

The several kinds of kitchen-garden produce known in Europe, are reared in abundance in the mountainous districts; and the markets of Kingston, and Spanish-town, are plentifully supplied with cabbages, lettuces, carrots, turnips, parsnips, artichokes, kidney-beans, green-peas, asparagus, and many other European herbs. Some of these have even been considered as of a superior flavour, to those, of the same kinds which are reared in England. However, some of the esculent vegetables of the native growth of the island, are not inferior to any of those yet mentioned; as the chocko, ochra, Limabean, and Indian-kale. The other indigenous plants of this class, are, plantains, bananas, yams of several varieties, calalue, (a species of spinage), besides cassavi and sweet potatoes. A mixture of these, stewed with salted fish, or salted meat of any kind, and highly seasoned with Cayenne pepper, is a favourite Olio among the Negroes. An unripe plantain, when roasted, is an excellent substitute for bread; and is preferred to it by the Negroes, and many of the white inhabitants. To the former, indeed, it may be called the staff of life, many thousands of acres being constantly covered with it for their daily use. The bread-fruit tree of the South-sea islands has been introduced by the bounty of his present majesty George the Third; but, though in many places cultivated, it has by no means superseded the use of the plantain.

In many regions of the torrid zone, the forests, mountains, and morasses, are infested by wild beasts of untameable fierceness; by broods of hideous serpents, possessed of mortal venom, and inextinguishable fury. But the bite of no serpent in the West Indies is mortal; and Jamaica harbours no animal of prey to desolate or destroy. Even the largest alligator,

whose fierceness has been so much exaggerated, when met on the banks of the rivers, manifests in this island, no savageness of disposition, but is a mild, timid creature, which anxiously avoids the approach of man. All the minute individuals of the lizard tribe are here innoxious, and many of them beautiful. Of the intermediate species of this tribe, the inguana, nearly three feet long, and proportionably bulky, was formerly hunted by the native Indians, and furnished the most desirable part of their food. Its flavour is like that of the turtle, and though it is a species of food highly prized by the French and Spanish, is seldom to be met with at the tables of the English settlers. The quadrupeds of Jamaica consisted, in former times, of eight species. 1. The Agouti. 2. The Pecary. 3. The Armadillo. 4. The Opossum. 5. The Racoon. 6. The Musk-Rat. 7. The Alco. 8. The Monkey. Of this number, only the first and last have escaped the sad fate of the original inhabitants of the island. Even the Alco, a little mute dog, fond and faithful, and once highly prized by its innocent and happy Indian masters, is now, like them, exterminated.

The regions of air and water are plentifully filled with inhabitants. A great variety of wild fowl and other birds of excellent flavour is to be found in the woods; of which, the ring-tail dove is, by many, deemed the most delicious. But that which is perhaps the most delicious of all birds, is the emberiza orizavora, the ortolan, or rice-bird of South Carolina. These little birds fatten upon the milky rice of that region. early in the autumn; and when the grain begins to harden, they visit Jamaica in prodigious numbers in October, to feed there on the seeds of the Guinea-grass. The manner in which the aborigines of this island caught the wild-fowl, is curious, and shows, that they possessed considerable ingenuity, as well as dexterity. In the ponds or marshes to which these birds