The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-23

were brought over, ready-made, rom the step-mother country, for the con venience of her colonies Many of these fiimsy houses give evidence of long de- sertion, and all are more or less dilapi- dated--doors hanging by one hinge, or refusing to hang at all, and bald on top in patches where the shingles have dis appeared. But over each q giant tamarind, or mango, or pepper-tree spreads it's protecting arms in perpetual benediction. The more pretentous man sions of gray stone have queer lltlle Frenchy courts, paved with blacK ana white pebbles set on end in patterns like a patch work quilt. In these courts the master smokes his interminaple cigarettes and entertains his friends; the mistress brings her embroidery or guitar, and the children play Ihe whole town is like one great green or chard, and over broken roofs ana Walls of rudest masonry hang limes ana paw paws oranges, aguacates, sapdulilos and other strange tropical fruits, anna wilderness of flowers. The mafKel- square near the south end or the town, is surrounded by shops and stalls ana nermeated with vile odor Of salteu fish. Just beyond the market on high bluff, is the quaintest of stone forts, commanding the roadstead ana harbor-in which, nowdays, there IS sel- dom any craft but sugar-sloops ana all occasional trading vessel besides the regular weekly steamer. There IS government house and acc urt house, hoth low and yellow and surrounded by flower gardens. Roseau itself mas oliiy ahollt three thousand inhabitants, ana the whole island less than thirty thou- sand. not more than six hundred oL whom are whites. Though Domlnlca has belonged to England since 1914 anu most of it's citizens are black as the typical ace of spades, it is still intensely French in feeling, manners, customs and religion. In spite of a fine new Fnglish church, with a modern clock Tn ifs tower and four imposing figures standing near its entranee-the dingy old Ron1ish cathedral continues to ab- sorb all the audiences, except a hand ful of British officials who perfuncto'liy attend service on Sunday mornings were not the Episcopal clergy main tained out of the public funds, they would certainly get scant maintenance in Dominica.
 For the last quarter-century thls island has been a member ot the Lee ward colony and sends representatives, to the general legislative assembly at Barbadoes; but has it's own local lesls- latl1re and treasury, and resident lleu- tenant-sovernor Although England controls things political here, she is not in high favor socially Dominican arls- tocracy is French to the core. led by few old Creole families of wealth and measureless pride, who maintain al- most patriarchal rule on their estates in the hills. They are delightfully nos pitable, in a quaint, old-world fashlon' which savers a good deal of feudal dis play. As there is no hotel in Roseau, no roads for riding at ease around the island, and no. carriages to be hlred even if there were boulevards over the mountains. the stranger would better make up" to the planters without de- lay. Unless one has friends in Roseau, or brings letters of introduction, he has no alternative but to spend his nights aboard-ship.
 Through the kindness of acquaint- ances. we made ah orseback excursion I'D the valley back of Roseau, and little way into the hills-just far enough to get A glimpse into an interior of this volcanic Eden In the first half-dozen miles we forded the Roseau river twice besides crossing it several times on bridges, as the cratic trail climbed up and up the sides of the mountains that seem "gatherer together like a woven garment and shakes into deep falling folds" Never were seen such ferns as grow in Dominica. There are great for ests of them in the cool moist recesses of the hills-many of the separate fern trees standing twenty feet or more in height, yet as daintly angled and pen mated as the smaller ones of the North. Groves of wild bananas are very con- spicuous in the dense mass of greenery, with their enormous pale-ereen leaves, thick punches of fruit, and the scarlet seed receptacles hanging down the stem of the trees as by a twisted rope. Tiny cane and coffee plantations, hedged with cocoa-palms, are met in the most unexpected and almost inaccessible places, and upon every declivity too steep to be planted, cascades burst through the close natural vegtation, keeping all incomparably fresh and green.
 Everybody has heard of Dominica's boiling lake, away up in the wild heart of the central mountains. We did not succeed in getting to it; but we went far enough to see its ascending steam, and the smoke from two other "Soufrieres," as volcanic cratets, whether extinct or active, are called by the French in the West Indies. The whole island is highly volcanic, and as late as 1880 there was tremendous eruption from one of the soufrieres. The boiling lake was undoubtedly once a geyser, the violence and volume of whose flow deepened and increased the aperature by which it escaped, until it reached its present dimensions--a great boiling caldron, four hundred feet across, surrounded by walls from eighty to one hundred feet high. It's rim of ferruginous earth with stones and rocks imbedded, is as nearly perpendtc- ular as its consistency will allow. As the banks are constantly cavins in, no amount of curiosity should induce the traveller to lessen a very respectful distance" between himself and this in ferno. The water in the so-called lake varies in temperature from ninety to