The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-02
ADIOS JAMAICA!

"A Sixty-Mile Excursion From Kings
 ton to Mandeville-Tid-B Bits of Infor-
 nation Concerning the English ls-
 land-Life in the Hghlands-Cff
 Again for Cuba.
 (Snecial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)
 Port Royal, Jamaica, Nov. 26.-No grass, figuratively or otherwise, has grown under our feet since we set them in Jamaica. We have made journeys inland and around the edges by rail- way, by carriage, in the saddle, in ca- noes and coasters, interviewed every body come -at-able and religiously gar nered every scrap of information; but the whole months experience dwindles to insignificance in the line of data gathering when compared with our last week on the island. By rare good for tune we fell in with two indisputable authorities-the confidential clerk ("clark" they call it here) of Colonial Secretary Chamberlain, and Boston I1u1C-Duy6T, WHO lOl ySdIS ile1o pSCiA eth' familiar as A. B. c. with every rod of this corner of the queens domain It happened that both were going to Man. devflle on the day of our excursion thereto, and the slow, sixty mile rail- way ride afforded unrivalled opportunl- ties for interviewing.
 Talk of womens tongues! Nothing uncorks a mans garrulity and sets 1t ix e.toa cty a days journey through scenes which arc to him familiar by repetition. As the train jolted along at an average rate of seven miles an hour your correspondent proved herself a compagnon de voyage ii. e., an attentive listener, silent but for an occasional judicious question; and meanwhile her trusty pencil was busy tracing shorthand quail tracks on the margins of her gude-book. Tha amount of information gained that day would enable me to write an encyclope dia on the West Indies in general and Jamaica in particular While the Eng lishman was naturally conservative in speech and said nothing prejudicial to British methods, the trader from the land of the Stars and Stripes, who had not been doing well of late, seemed glad to unburden his mind.
 It is always instructive to travel with practical people, though some times painful to see natures splendid pictures blurred by too critical analy- sis. Neither of the gentlemen afore- said discerned anything impressive in the shadowy mountains around whose bases we were winding-"Always Kirk" the "Scotchman's Bonnet and other rugged peaks with Scottish names, or in the tropical valleys that lie between and the Spanish Main on the other hand stretching away to the horizon.
 Visions that filled my impractical soul with joy--of green hills marshailpd in close ranks by the Master hand; of tow ering palms and jungle forest, cocoanut groves and golden ane-1elds-merely furnished them with a text for dis course on the respective merits of high land and lowland soil and the adapta- bility of each to certain crops. Silvery cataracts dancing down to the s a, and torrents roaring through deep, fern fringed ravines, called forth an array of statistics on the exact measurement of the annual rainfall. Lofty bamboos touching finger-tips over tranquil streams and mirrored in the waters be- , low, inspired a minute account of the manifold uses of bamboo and it's com mercial value. Chaiky patches on the mountain sides, where the dark jungle had been cleared away, glistening white as the external snows of the Andes and fecked by every passing cloud led 10 a lecture on the porous properties of lime stone and the exact proportion in which it shuld be employed in road-building; marshes that surround Kingston through the tunnels that pierce the hili- tons and down through sun-l1issed slopes on the other side.
 The north coast of Jamaica is incom- pare bly, lovely, with little bays between bold bluffs, and everywhere an abun- dance of springs and streams. The eaore is dotted with peaceful havens- Saint Ann's Rio Bueno, Monteg) and Ocho Rios-each a miniature Garden of Eden, with green meadows soft as vel vet. adorous groves, tangled creepeis, birds. blossoms and butterflies galore The road to Vaudeville crosses the Rio Cobre. between long lines of trees standing in the water, waist-deep, so to say. their lower limbs curiously deora- ted with clingng oysters. The Cobre river discharges itself in Kingston har- bor. near Passage Fort, where the Eng fish s7ldiers landed in the conquest of the island. "Rodney's Lookout" Fort