Arrival at St. Thomas. 441 



estinir animals. These steamers do not take much above a 

 fortnight hence to England, and if dispatched about May or 

 June, the animals would sustain but little detriment from the 

 change to a European climate at that season. Thus on the 

 present voyage of the Mechvatj tliere were numbers of animals 

 and chests of plants in full bloom, consigned to various 

 museums and private collections in England. 



On 30th June we anchored in the small but delightful har- 

 bour of St. Thomas, with bright green hills forming a pic- 

 turesque background, relieved by the white houses of the in- 

 habitants picturesquely grouped along their slopes. 



St. Thomas had changed little from what I remembered it 

 at my previous visit in 1855. At the last census it had 

 15,000 inhabitants, and its trade is visibly increasing. It is, 

 however, extremely difficult to get at the statistics of the 

 annual amount of shij)ping here, as there is no toll-house, and 

 the Danish Government publishes no official information as to 

 the general trade. According to a German merchant long 

 resident here, the number of foreign ships of all nations enter- 

 ing and leaving the port amounts to 860 annually, of coasters 

 about 3500, while the annual value of merchandise so trans- 

 shipped is about 6,000,000 dollars. One very remarkable 

 trade is that in ice, which reaches the enormous amount of 

 1000 tons annually, chiefly for distribution among the ad- 

 joining islands, by far the largest proportion of which comes 

 from Boston, where it is worth 20 dollars per ton, and at St. 

 Thomas 80 dollars per ton, or 3J cents per lb. One may 



