The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-11-10

Among the Blue Mountains.
BY }. ARBuTHNOT WILSON.

TINS paper an All capGlnuum uIle. NO
body who has ever really been in ia
maica talks about the Blue Mountains,
any more than tourists in Scotland talk
about the Grampians, or their comrades
in North Wales about the Cam
brian Hills. There is one solitary height,
the tallest in the island, which bears the
name of Blue Mountain Peak; but that
is its own private designation, secured to
it by the copyright 't public usage, and
never extended, even by courtesy, to
those spurious imitators, the surrounding
hills, Sill, I must cali my article some
thing; and as English people, who know
the West Indies in Keith Johnston's At
las only, have decided that these are the
Blue Mountains, let them be Blue Noun.
tains by all means, and let US waste no
more time in discussing that preliminary
question of names, for which the immor-
tai William, at least in the person of Ju-
liet had such Il sublime contempt
Not that they are really blue, or any
thing like it. Mountains in the tropics
never are. 1t is only in temperate eli
maeS that distance lends its proverbial
enchantns~t to the view; seen through
the clear and cioualnss sky of the Carib-
bean, those peaks, some ten or twelve
miles distant from my temporary home
in Blundell Hall, Kingston, show out this
morning in all their true greenness, as
vividly as if we were looking at them
across valley hundred yards wide. If
you want to see really blue mountains,
YOU must stand on the hills behind Bar
mouth of a summer evening. and see the
Suiise' fAde away over the purple and
azure tops OF Bai".Oy Island and Yr FL
fel. Or you must look northwest in the
early morning over the calm waters iof
Como and watch the blue peaks of the
lower Alps standing out against the pink
tipped SUBMITS of their snow-clad neigh
bors. But tropical mountains always
look nearer than they really are, throug gh
the intense clearness of the air; and never
present those beautiful c0lors which one
sees among the Swiss or Scotch valleys,
except on few rare occasions when the
sun sets behind thick banks of cloud, and
lights them up for moment with gIori-
ous touches of crimson, green, and gold.
For week | have been lounging about
Blundell Hall--every lodging-house in
Kingston is called hall-and | am now
getting tired of the town, with its ram
,hackled streets, its endless clouds of
dust, its broken-down omnibuses, and its
chattcring population of ragged negroes.
For week | have sat upon the verandah
daily after dinner in a cool rocking
chair, and watched the mist gathering or
dispensing about the hill-tops; and now
am beginning to want little change of
air and scene, with closer peep at these
distant mountains. Ii there is anything
beautiful in jamaica, which am much
inclined to doubt at the present moment,
1T must be found amongst those green
heights. An official in the Port ROYAL
Hills, to whom had letters of introduc-
ton, has asked me up, with the ordinary
houndless hospitality of colonies, "to
spend a month OF two, if possible" and |
am going this morning to take him at
his word, at least SO far as a fortnight's
inhiction of my presence is concerned. |
Nm now standing in the courtyard of the
hail." awaiting my buggy, which is
MISREPRESENTATION late, and caus-
ing much amusement to the easy-going
persons around me by my Britannia in
dignation at being kept waiting.
Everything ia Jamaica is ALWAYS late.
The whole island moves along in such
happy-go-lucky unpunctual fashion that
| am sometimes tempted to believe it can
not revolve like the rest of the earth once
in every twenty-four hours, but must
have separate and much slower cycle
of its own, if indeed if does not abso-
lutely stand still. There is a railway to
Spanish Town, for example, thirteen
miles in length; and it is on record, say
the local gossips, that train has more
than once taken thirteen hours to ac-
complish the distance. Occasionally the
,toker finds himself short of fuel
wilereupon he stops the engine, gets out
and cuts little BUSH elights his fire
with the green wood, and then quietly
proceeds on his journey. These facts I
can not myself vouch for-I give them
to you as they were given to me-but I
can safely assert that such slow line as
this Jamaica railway / have never met
in all my multifarious experience of the
ends of the earth. 1t is Just the same
with the horses and buggies. l went
last night to neighboring livery-stable,
and asked If I could have carriage to
go to Gorlon Town. A colorcd man was
wiping down horse; he paused mo-
ment, looked at me, answered
'ies sab, and then went
IN wipmg down till the
operation was completed, without taking
any further notice Of my insignificant
presence. When he had finished, he said
he would find the properiatah;' and after
about twenty minutes more the proprietor
arrived. | wanted to start at six o clock,
in order to avoid the heat; and the pro-
prietor's first endeavor was to persuade
me that nine was much more conven-
lent hour. / stuck to six with admira-
bic pertinacity, upon which he proceeded
10 show that Thursday was more suita-
BILE day for starting than Wednesday. At
last he was induced to accept the day and
the hour, and then followed a lengthy