60 MONTSERRAT. 



moment, ^vit]lOllt twiliglit, and we were scarce out of tlie forest 

 before it w^as dark. The wild game was already moving, and 

 a deer crossed our line of march, close before one of the 

 horses. However, we were not benighted ; for the sun was 

 hardly down ere the moon rose, bright and full ; and we 

 floundered home through the mud, to start again next morn- 

 infT into mud ai:,^ain. 



Through rich rolling land covered with cane ; past large 

 sugar-works, where crop-time and all its bustle was just 

 beginning ; along a tramway, w^hich made an excellent horse- 

 road, and then along one of the new roads, wdiich are opening 

 up the yet untouched riches of this island. In this district 

 alone, thirty-six miles of good road and thirty bridges have 

 been made, where formerly there were only tw^o abominable 

 bridle-paths. It w^as a solid pleasure to see good engineering 

 round the hill-sides ; gullies which but a year or two 

 before w^ere break-neck scrambles into fords often impassable 

 after all, bridged with baulks of incorruptible timber, on 

 piers sunk, to give a hold in that sea of hasty-pudding, 

 sixteen feet below the river-bed ; and side supports sunk 

 as far into the banks ; a solid pleasure to congratulate the 

 warden (who had joined us) on his triumj)hs, and to hear 

 how he had sought for miles around in the hasty-pudding 

 sea, ere he could find either gravel or stone for road metal, 

 and had found it after all; or how in places, finding no 



