CHAPTER XX 



JAMAICA 



Geographical features of the island. Its central position in the West 

 Indies. The Blue Mountain scenery. The limestone plateau. The 

 coast border and plains. Flora, fauna, climate, sanitation. 



A LTHOUGH Jamaica is not more richly endowed by 

 JLJL nature than Cuba, Porto Rico, and Santo Domingo, 

 yet, because of the administration of a beneficent govern- 

 ment, it ranks as the most beautiful and salubrious of 

 the four Great Antilles. Here alone has a stable and 

 civilized government been established, which has per- 

 mitted the development of the possibilities of the soil and 

 climate, and, by enforcing sanitation, education, and public 

 order, has enabled us to see how high a degree of culture 

 may be attained in the West Indies. 



Jamaica is an elevated prolongation of the submerged 

 bank which extends southwestward from the island of 

 Santo Domingo, and lies entirely south of the main An- 

 tillean ridge formed by Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Porto 

 Rico, and five degrees south of the latitude of Havana. It 

 is south of the western half of the Sierra Maestra coast- 

 line of Cuba, from which it is sixtv-five nautical miles 

 distant. Between these islands is the eastward prolon- 

 gation of tic great Bartlett depression, three thousand 

 fathoms deep. The eastern coast is about the same dis- 



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