CHAP, iv.] WEST INDIES. 211 



to the rest, in order to clear his lands ; it not answer- 

 ing the expense of conveying them to the sea coast 

 for the purpose of sending them to a distant market. 

 Of softer kinds, for boards and shingles, the species 

 are innumerable ; and there are many beautiful va- 

 rieties adapted for cabinet work, among others the 

 bread-nut, the wild-lemon, and the well known ma- 

 hogany. | 



As the country is thus abundantly wooded, so, on 

 the whole, we may assert it to be well watered. 

 There are reckoned throughout its extent above one 

 hundred rivers, which take their rise in the mountains, 

 and run, commonly with great rapidity, to the sea, on 

 both sides of the island. None of them are deep 

 enough to be navigated by marine vessels. Black ri- 

 ver in St. Elizabeth's parish, flowing chiefly through 

 a level country, is the deepest and gentlest, and ad- 



f Mr. Beckfordj (formeily of Westmoreland in Jamaica), whose ele- 

 gant taste for the beautiful, leads him to select live picturesque, rather 

 than the useful, in woodland scenery, thus describes the rural features of 

 this richly furnished island : " The variety and brilliancy of the verdure 

 *' are particularly striking, and the trees and shrubs that adorn the face 

 ' ef the country, are singular for the richness of their tints, and the depth 

 " of their shadows. The palm, the coco-nut, the mountain-cabbage, 

 ** and the plantain, when associated with the tamarind, the orange, and 

 " other trees of beautiful growth and vivid dyes, and these commixed with 

 "the waving plumes of the bambo ocane, the singular appearance of the 

 " Jerusalem thorn, the bushy richness of the oleander, and African rose, 

 " the glowing red of the scarlet cordium, the verdant bowers or the jes- 

 ff samine and grenadilla vines, all together compose an embroidery of 

 " colours which few regions can rival, and which, perhaps, none can 

 <: surpass," Descriptive Account cf Jamaica, vol. i. p. 32. 



