The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-01-28
THE BEAUTIFUL WEST INDIES.
A HeaIthful Climate and Magnificent
Scenery-Plain and COrd:nera.

A Hea1thful Climate and Magnificent
Scenery-Plain and Cord:nera.
Those islands are as distinct in features
as In origin. Some are suggestive of a
period when large portion of our con-
tinent was submerged in the ocean.
Others are towering masses of trap rock,
with cone ike SUBMITS, declaring their
volcanic descent. Others for ages have
been In a progressive state-the work OF
the invisible zophite architect Some
have not yet risen above the belt of foam
that marks their existence as coral reefs,
and notifies the mariners of danger.
while others soar above the tides and
bloom with evidences of bounteous har-
vests. Servile instructions, attended
with great loss of property and life, have,
In years past, retarded the prosperity of
those islands. Shocks of earthquake
there have alarmed the inhabitants, and
the serenity of the heavens is often dis
tIIrbed by the desOlating track of the
hurricane. Large confagratiOns have
occurred there as in the United States.
but energy hes surmOunted those losses
by fire, and better built houses have
arisen from the ruins.
From December to May the climate is
delightful and healthy, even along the
coast, where, in the summer months,
yellow fever occasionally occurs. The
mountainous regions or cOrdilleras, where
the wealthy planters have their elegant
residences, are blessed with a perennial
springtime and exempted from epidemic
influences. The mean temperature of
these highlands is about 20 Fahrenheit.
and at the elevation of 1850 feet
you are securely fortified against the
attacks of yellow jack. Beauty
and sublimity in pre-eminent de-
gree are combined in the scenery of those
cordilleras, especially in the blue noun
tains of Jamaica, the largest and most
valuable island of the British West In
dies. The loftiest peak of that ridge,
which extends some fifty leagues in
length, is nearly 5000 feet high, although
the mean elevation does not exceed one
third of that measurement. The crest of
the chain is SO sharp that in many places
it is only four yards across; the escarp-
ments are wild, the declivities steep.
checkered in places with stately forest
growth. The more elevated ranges are
thanked by still lower ones, and these by
verdant savannahs.
A belt Of intervening plain lies between
the ocean and the blue cOrdillera and is
frightened with tracks of guinea grass,
corn, sugar cane and groves of cocoa and
plantain proudly tossing their palmated
heads IL unison with the rustIing airs.
There are also seen the tapering furnaces
of the sugar works, the overseers dwell
ing and clusters of the labOrers' huts.
But those evidences of culture and popu-
latiOn are not confined to the plain. Look
up the steep, rugged side of the cordillera
and you viii see where its F;sciI@ tousness
does not render cultivation impossible
The dark tint of the woodland that gives
a name to the mountain chain is diversi-
fed with the light green of cultivated
fields and golden shades of ripening cere-
ais. You will see abrupt cliffs dotted
with white specks as points of rock, or
perchance reminding you of an eagles |
aerie. When with a telescope these points
are brought closer to your vision, you be- |
hold one white speck transformed into a |
lovely country seat, others into hamlets |
nesting on the brows of precipices 3, 600 !
feet or more in height. Bride paths |
scarcely twelve feet wide are cut up the |
sides of this cordillera to its gorges and |
table lands, for journeys in the interior
are generally made on horseback, as the |
asperities of the country are unfavorable |
to the transit of carriages. --Baltimore
American.