30 NArAlilMA. 



this i'lobe has seen, which has been hjnL;- enough for all 

 this ? The human imagination can no more grasp that 

 time tlian it can grasp the space between us and the 

 nearest star. 



Such thoughts were forced upon me as the steamer stopped 

 off San Fernando ; and I saw, some quarter of a mile out at 

 sea, a single stack of rock, which is said to have been joined 

 to the mainland in the memory of the fathers of this genera- 

 tion ; and on shore, composed, I am told, of the same rock, 

 tliat hill of San Fernando which forms a beacon by sea 

 and land for many a mile around. An isolated boss of the 

 older Parian, composed of hardened clay wdiich has escaped 

 destruction, it rises, though not a mile long and a third of a 

 mile broad, steeply to a height of nearly six hundred feet, 

 carrying on its cliffs the remains of a once magnificent vegeta- 

 tion. Xow its sides are quarried for the only road-stone met 

 with for miles around ; cultivated for pasture, in which the 

 round-headed mango-trees grow about like oaks at home ; or 

 terraced for villas and frardens, the charm of which cannot be 

 told in words. All round it, rich sugar estates spread out, 

 with the noble Palmistes left standinc^ here and there alons 

 the roads and terraces ; and everywhere is activity and high 

 cultivation, under the superintendence of gentlemen who are 

 prospering, Tjecause they deserve to prosper. 



Between the cliff and the shore nestles the gay and grow- 



