Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-09


tiently. I told Tucker to take one of the
bottles of rum and divide 1t among the
trio. He needed no second invitation. and.
receiving the bottle from me deferentially.
retired with it behind clump of palms,
where 1t was soon emptied. without re-
course to water from the punch bowls"
Heartened by this al fresco lunch, and
blessing my good planter for his provi-
dence, we soon set out for the peak again,
this time stumbling and wallowing through
masses of climbing ferns and slipping over
dank fields Of MOSES many feet in depth.
1t was well we had refreshed ourselves at
the forest edge, for there would have been
no opportunity thereafter, and 1t was full
three hours before the peak was reached.
The last half hour the worst climbing
l ever did in my life, it seemed to me. for
1 had to hold on with both hands and dig
my toes into the slippery MOSES on nearly
perpendicular rocks, while about us the fog
was so dense that We could not see five
feet ahead. Through it all. however, Jim
Bass hewed out the old trail so truly that.
though obliterated. he disclosed the old
blazes every now and then. and Yaller
Charlie followed jauntily in his wake, bal
ancing the hamper on his head. He would
not listen to me and leave 1T behind, saying
that it was no trouble at all to tote it, and
We might need bite when We reached the
summit, as sure enough we did; not only a
bite. but nip, to keep the filmy fog out Of
our threats.
At last. between and 3 in the afternoon,
we reached the deep cleft in the huge rock
constituting the peak, but we could not
pass through 1t, and were obliged to flank
it. hanging on with hands, teeth and toes.
"B" de holp of de Lawd We reach dat
top said Bass, fervently and encouraging
ly. and reach it we finally did, casting our
selves down. quite exhausted, on the ridge
above the crater.
when Mr. Norton reach heah," said
Tucker. "he done bus right into teahs.
and den he pray, and sing God Save de
Queen. l could understand Mr.. Nortons
m h1lC 40 fhntt oh for TO ,,r
could not see what the queen had to do
with it, Fancy Queen Victoria, or the
Prince of Wales, either, as to that matter,
waddlng to the peak of Mount Misery.
Neither of them ever it. though the
Princes sons, George and his late lamented
brother, once visited the islands as mid
shlpmen, and had everywhere a royal re-
ception.
An Enchanting Picture.
The dense fog sweeping in from the At
lantic hid from sight all the windward side
of the island, from which we had ascend
ed, but to the leeward lay the encircling
forest just about the cone, beyond which
were the sugar plantations, divided into
squares of light green where the cane was
growing and brown where it had been cut
or the ground had been freshly broken No
bit of paradise could appear more beauti-
ful; and as to its fertility, | knew that I
was looking upon one of the richest tracts
OF cane land in the world, where the vol
canlc soil Is so deep as to be inexhaustiDle
Beyond the 1nciosing plantations, with
their brown and yerdant checkers of cane
and their tiny windmlls with slow-waying
arms, lay the all-encirclng sea- blue as the
dearest SKY and fiecked with vessels white
ana eautiful. l could see Saba and Sta
TIA, Antigua Nevis, Montserrat and a score
OF lesser islets, lying like cloudbanks on
the wave when the fog lifted and revealed
'hem ana each one was a vision of beauty
1T was damp and cold in the fog Wreaths
that enveioped the summit. so l did not
stay long, and after adding my signature
to some names 1 found written on sin of
paper tof DR.. John Branch and his three
dauShters) told my men to lead the way
down the trail. The only living thing he
sides ourselves that was seen al this eleva-
ton of more than 1000 feet above the sea
was a little g!it-crested hummer, the most
minute OF West Indian birds, which how
cred awhile above the crater and then
sailed away into space.
The driving mist that so rapidly scurried
over the verge of the volcano was only
now and then dispelled by the sun. afford
ing but transient glimpses of the gloomy
chasm that lay beneath us. The walls on
TINS slde were too steep to descend, being
almost perpendicular; but I vowed that |
would reach the crater even If / took an
other trip as hard as this to accomplish if
A week later / was on the leeward coast
OF the island. and at in the morning skirt
ing the base of world-renowned Brimsto one
Hill. crowned by it's fortress known as the
Gibraltar of St. Kits
From the coast settlement of Sandy Point
II is d not seven miles to the borders of
Sir ellis Estate" in the pastures above
which l left my horse and found guide
Sandy Point Springs.
Sandy Point obtains its water supply
from springs in the hills at this place, and
thence there is trail through the dense
forest, up steep ridges. finally turning the
crest and descending the crater wall at an
uncomfortable pitch, but accompanied all
the way by clumps of tree ferns, wild
plantains and mountain palms. The de-
scent is sleeper than that into the bowl
of Statia. and. like that, it is lined with
tropical vegetation, even large trees find
ing a home here. and the distance from
the brim Is about 700 feet.
In ordinary seasons there is a small lake
here which varies in Depth sometimes dry
ing up entirely. and its water, when there
is any, Is blackish-green. Above the era
ter bed rises Mount Misery. the highest
peak of the surrounding wall, steep pre-
cjpitous and the opposite side is a
large body of palms. Amateur biologists
say that the adjacent Birthstone Hill looks
as If 1t had been cast out of this crater at
some far-distant epoch. and that II it could
he turned upside down 1t would exactly fill
it.
Under the cliffs Of the east side is the
Sulphur steaming pool, where the sur
rounding rocks are stained in various col
ors-red yellow. white and brown-and the
trees nearby are blanched quite snow white,
their leaves scorched and shriveled.
Throughout the bed are numerous black
fumeroles leading far into the bowels of
the earth from which sulphur fumes are
belched, as in Dominica and Guadeoupe,
while a stream of acidulous water runs
from the great Sulphur" into the lake.
Like all the volcanoes of the Lesser An
TILES, this of St. kits has long been ex-
tir.ct, at least quiescent, the only others
that have been active within the memory of
man being that of Guadeloupe, from which
sometimes smoke ascends. and of st. Vim
cent, which erupted in 1872, and both of
which I have climbed.
AT the spring in the forest which I
reached at mid-afternoon the return
journey, l found Mamie, the Portuguese"
awaiting me with a basket full of solid
and liquid nourishment sent by the pro-
prietor of the Wingfield estate, nearly nine
miles distant. He had trudged all the way
in the tropic sun, and the beer was warm,
but as 1 had eaten little and drank nothing
since morning and the sulphur water in the
crater was not exactly palatable, 1 did not
mind little thing like that. The water
of the crystal spring delicious, and far
preferable to any bottled goods, anyway
while the cold chicken and Guinea bird
were tender the proverbial "Billy's
mother'-who, believe, was the widow of
sailor.
The HumminE Birds Bath.
While refreshing myself in this delight