THE CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION 



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valleys, half a mile deep, of the Green and Yallahs Rivers, the lower 

 slopes of which have been largely cleared and planted with coffee or 

 vegetables. These valleys, with their changing lights and shadows, from 

 dawn till twilight, are a constant delight to the dweller at Cinchona. 

 In the early -morning they are in deep shadow long after the sun has 

 lighted up the mountain tops around them. A thin veil of cloud floats 

 far down below, and, in the stillness of the morning, the faint roar 

 of the river, coming up from the dimly seen bottom, makes the valley 

 seem miles in depth. All day long the clouds, driven by the northeast 

 trade winds, roll over the Blue Mountains from the cool north side and 

 quickly melt away in the dry air above the warm southern valleys. In 

 the afternoon the sun sets in these valleys at four or five o'clock, and 

 their slopes cool down rapidly. Then bits of the flowing cloud break 

 off and slowly settle down into the valley beneath, to form anew the 

 billowy curtain that screens the valley each night. A sight long to be 

 remembered is such a sea of cloud, reflecting from its top the glow of a 

 sunset, or the brilliant light of the tropical moon. 



During the rainy season, or " the seasons," as Jamaicans call it, the 

 clouds become denser south of the mountains. Then Cinchona itself is 

 enveloped in cloud most of the time for days together. I might almost 

 say enveloped in water, for the rain is so heavy that a tumber will fill 

 directly from the skies in three or four hours. An inch an hour may 

 fall for hours together. The spring rainy season, of heavy rains both 



Cloud Fragments Settling into Valley. 



