or slip through deep dells covered with flowering
vines and shrubs. There is valuable timber in the
primfeval woods, but little use is made of it. There
are ancient craters among the mountains, and frequent
sulphur cavities and boiling springs. One
old chasm used to be known as the boiling lake,
and was said to be three hundred feet deep, but a
few years ago a landslide partly filled it up, spoiled
the symmetry of its banks, and stopped its ebullitions.
A comparatively small part of the island’ s area of
two hundred and ninety square miles is subject to
cultivation, and much of that is stony, but the soil
is very rich and produces all tropical plants and
fruits in great abundance. T he palms and fruit
trees, the shrubs and flowering plants, so common
in all these islands, flourish in Dominica, and it has
several varieties peculiar to itself. T he ceiba tree,
though not its exclusive possession, is specially conspicuous,
with its trailing parasites and profusion of
orchids; and tree ferns grow to a height of twenty
or thirty feet. There are few quadrupeds, but in
the woods a great variety of birds with bright plumes
and musical notes are found. Wild bees swarm in
the blooming wildernesses and store honey in the
clefts of trees, which is stolen from them and sent
into the markets of the world. Honey and wax are
among the chief exports, though sugar and coffee
are still sent abroad.
In the old days the Dominican planters did not
find their land so well adapted to sugar-cane as to
coffee, and this was never one of the islands in
which great plantations flourished. Since the abolition
of slavery, it has been slow to adapt itself to
new conditions, and has not been prosperous. Its
climate on the west coast, which is alone accessible
to commerce, is moist and hot, and of its 30,000 inhabitants
few are white Europeans. There has been
some cultivation of cacao and arrowroot, and of
lemons and limes, and less reliance on the old
“ colonial produce,” but labour conditions are not
favourable, and there is less evidence of thrift and
cheerful content than in the French islands, though
the language and traditions here are French rather
than English. Roseau, or Charlotte Town, is a neat
and quiet place of 5000 people, but has an air of
having seen better days. It has an old French
cathedral, an English church, and a Wesleyan
chapel, and there is a botanical garden and a public
library. A t Portsmouth, or Prince Rupert’s, up by
the foot of Mount Diablotin, there is a better harbour
and more encouragement for foreign commerce,
of which the island has comparatively little, though
capable of producing many things for which there is
a steady demand.
Afte r passing L a Deseada, Marie Galante, and The
Saints, Columbus bore down toward the verdant land
that seemed to rise out of the water to the south,
but, finding a rock-bound coast and no good landing-
place, he turned back. A s it was Sunday, he called
that rugged island Dominica, and proceeded to
Guadeloupe. T h e Carib possessors were left in
peace until 1627, when a few Englishmen, presuming
on that lavish gift of King Charles to the Earl