1911.] natural sciences of philadelphia. 129 



The Somerset Colony. 



This large estate of some 3,000 acres was visited in February, 1910, 

 and in May I spent a week here as the guest of Mr. A. P. Sutherland 

 collecting molluscs. The property lies on either side of the parochial 

 road (known as the Somerset road) which leads to Medina and Bala- 

 clava, and the estate is entered at a point about five miles from 

 Mandeville. From here it extends along the road for a couple of miles. 

 The house at Somerset was built more than half a century ago, but 

 the property is still in virgin forest with the exception of such pastures 

 and cultivations among the hills as have gradually been cleared during 

 the last 30 or 40 years. The surface is very irregular, with a network 

 of narrow valleys and sinks more or less connected, between the 

 meshes of which the round or oblong hills stand up boldly. The 

 topography has been mainly produced by the solution of the limestones 

 forming caves, which have fallen in, making the deep sinks, bowl- 

 shaped valleys and deep gullies that form the network of depressions. 

 The limestone stands up in bold escarpments and cliffs fronting the 

 depressions, and these cliffs follow along the general trend of the 

 hills; in many cases they seem to represent the faces of fault blocks. 

 The main system of these cliffs runs nearly north and south — north- 

 northwest by south-southeast, as a rule; the hills follow these lines in a 

 large number of cases. A more or less continuous depression is 

 followed by the road through the estate, but this is not continuous, 

 and the road is therefore very hilly. Less than half a mile to the west 

 of the road over the first range of hills is a similar and more continuous 

 depression or valley, with a more continuous range of hills rising 

 abruptly on the west, and so the steep hills continue to rise in succession 

 until at about 2\ or 3 miles to the west of the Somerset barbecues and 

 house the ridge overlooking the valley of St. Elizabeth is reached — 

 a continuation of the "Ridge near Lincoln." All of the depressions 

 (except some deep gullies and sinks) and some of the less stony slopes 

 near the parochial road are cleared and partly under cultivation, but 

 this cleared area represents less than one-fourth of the surface near the 

 road, and in the valleys further from the road even less has been 

 cleared. Many of the old cultivations have been abandoned for years 

 and the jungle or "bush" very rapidly covers such abandoned, cleared 

 land. Most of the land at present cleared is in pasture, although 

 some small plantings of ground vegetables, coffee, bananas, etc., 

 have been made. The hills are so close to each other, only separated, 

 as a rule, by pastures, which are often planted with oranges and pimento, 

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