, 1894-04-21
HE AVIS.
Chcistiangted, St. Ceoix
Saturday, 21st April 1894.

In a recent number of on English journal
we find the phrase 'up north, (which is COM
monty used in England, explained as arising
from the fact that maps are generally drawn
with the north at the top. The writer ads
the remark that people say ''up to London
In W hatever direction the city may lie with
reference to the speaker, but that this arises
from the gieat importance Of the city. lie IS
obviously right on both points. Down
south is probably another illustration Of the
influence of the map. For down easter some
other explanation must be found, there is per-
haps some contempt in the phrase. In the West
Indies the directions up and down are
mainly determined by the direction Of the
trade wind. Among the islands, we go cup"
to az island that lies to windward Of US,
ttdown" to an island that lies to leeward
There is no difficulty in seeing how up and
down come to be thus used A sailor knows
the difficulty of going against the wind, and
compares it to an ascent, hence he always
speaks Of cheating up; going before the
wind, on the other hand, is as easy as going
down a slope, hence he speaks Of running
down"
These nautical IDEAS have also found a
home ashore, SO that in each island cup
means towards the east, down" means to-
wards the west. Hence in this island we
say down to West End but cup to Basin"
It happens that these forms also agrees in this
instance with the political relations, as Basin
is the capital. We shouldn't wonder, now
ever, if some of the WeStenders should dis
pute our claim to be described az cup" on
the ground of superiority. Since the steamers
from sup north have been calling at their
town, the Westenlers have got SO proud and
laugh 50 much it our snug little harbour with
its fine protecting (and unfortunately at the
same time obstructing) reefs, that they arc
inclined to look upon themselves as "the 30
pie; some of them have even been heard to
say that they only want Government House
dowD there to make their town 'the chiet.
Perhaps they will begin.t to speak of going
dowa to Bassin'' by and by. However, we
are to Windward of them, that is certain, and
however sharp they may be they can never
get to windward of us.
The same mode of describing directions IS
applied to the streets of a West Indian town.
Hence in st Thomas cup street. means the
eastern part Of the town, while "down street
means the western part of the town. In our
own town the princip pal streets slope to the
north east, hence, "higher up, that is more
towards the east, commonly means CLOVER
down, an awkward contradiction. We notice,
however, that residents in the upper part OF
the town al ways speak of golng'down town,
the actual .'down'' in this case triuupbing
over the fgurative up.
The most accurate description of motion IN
q street which we ever heard was at Newport
in the Isle of Wight, where the people an
swsred questions by directing one to go cup
along" or down along" according to the ma
tural slope Of the street. We are not able to
say over what area this form prevails; If used
beyond the island, it is probably limited to
the county of Hampshire.
1t would be interesting to trace the infu-
ence of the traSe wind generally on the lam