130 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
been opened. A curious product known as ‘‘manjac’’ has been 
mined and exported to a limited extent. It is used in the 
manufacture of varnishes and paints and is found in the Scot- 
land District. 
But it is the population that interests us more than anything 
else, aside from our main zoological work. Here we have one of 
the oldest British colonies in the new world. It always has 
been British since its discovery in 1605, and it is British still 
to the very core, although the population is African, fully nine- 
tenths of it. This colony differs from all others, we are told, 
in having a constitution of its own and a legisature to make its 
own laws. As I understand it, the relation between Barbados 
and the mother country is much like that between Canada and 
England. The Governor and Executive Council are appointed 
by the crown, but the legislative body is elected by the people. 
There is, I believe, a property qualification for the right of 
suffrage. Two members are allowed from each of the eleven 
parishes, and additional ones from the city of Bridgetown. The 
Assembly is elected annually. Some of the high officials are 
negroes, and I heard of a chief justice of that race who seems 
to have served with unusual ability and to the satisfaction of 
both black and white citizens. There are two departments of 
agriculture, one Colonial, with Mr. John R. Bovell as its chief, 
the other the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the 
British West Indies with Sir Francis Watts as Commissioner. 
To the former we owe thanks for many courtesies, and to the 
latter more than we can well express, as will be understood by 
those who read this narrative. 
We conceived a high regard for the police force, which seemed 
well trained and efficient and aided us on several occasions. 
They impress one as a Ssoldierly, well disciplined lot of men; 
and are, so far as we saw, all negroes. The population of Bar- 
bados, according to the guide-book published in 1908, was at 
that time 196,000 or 1,180 to the square mile, the densest popu- 
lation in the New World. The island fairly swarms with blacks, 
and the struggle for existence must be exceedingly severe; but 
the result has not been entirely without recompense. There is 
not much idleness there, and every man and woman, and many 
of the children, have to work more strenuously than in the 
