the interior, encountering many perils and enemies
on the way. Millions of them are fortunately devoured,
or there would soon be no room for anything
else. There are objectionable reptiles and insects,
but few that are noxious, though the scorpion and
centipede are uncommonly large and vicious. There
are several varieties of fireflies that illumine the
night. T h e seal and manatee are found on the
coast, turtles are abundant, and the waters swarm
with fish. There is a great variety of waterfowl,
and birds of the air are many, including pigeons and
parrots and others of brilliant plumage, and over
twenty species of song birds. T h e domestic animals
of Europe were introduced early and have always
thrived, many of them running wild in the uplands.
T h e climate of Jamaica has some peculiarities of
its own, and differs considerably on the two sides
of the central mountain range, especially in the
eastern part, and on the different levels above the
sea. T he moisture brought by the trade-winds is
precipitated much more heavily on the northern than
the southern side, and while the annual rainfall on
the north slope of the Blue Mountains is about one
hundred inches, it is only forty-four at Kingston^
and the plains about Spanish Town are subject to
drought. There are practically two wet seasons of
six or eight weeks each,— in May and June and in
October and November,— with a period of comparative
dryness between, much addicted, however, to
sudden and violent storms of short duration. It is
in this interval, too, that the hurricane is apt to
break loose and sweep with devastating force ove?
this and other islands. In all parts of the wet
season there are times of heavy rain, accompanied
by terrific thunder and lightning. From November
to April the climate is genial, and seldom disturbed
by sudden or violent changes.
T he temperature may be said to be equable at all
times. A t Kingston the recorded extremes of the
year are 66° and 920, with 74° as the mean. The
ordinary range in the lowlands in the hot season is
from about 75° to 850, and in the cool season some
ten degrees lower. A t U p Park, two hundred and
twenty-five feet above the sea level, the average of
the temperature is a fraction above 8i° in the hot
season and 75° in the coolest part of the year. A t
Newcastle, where the English troops are now stationed,
3800 feet above the sea, the average is 68°
in the hot season and 6 10 in the cool. There are
still higher levels where the range is from 40° to
50°. There is a great deal of humidity in the air a
large part of the time, and vapours accumulate in
masses over the mountains and sometimes spread a
decided chill through the uplands. In the coast
plains there is generally a sea breeze in the daytime
and a land breeze at night, which contributes to
equalise the temperature. T he nights are rarely
uncomfortable, and the most oppressive time is from
seven or eight to ten o ’clock in the morning, after
the land breeze dies down and before the sea breeze
springs up.
Much question is made of the healthfulness of
this and other tropical climates, but it is as much a
matter of altitude as of latitude, and more a matter