242 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
ment to the soldiers of the Leeward Islands; and tombstones, 
some of which are falling down, and all of which are in memory 
of the defenders of the British Empire. The 54th Royal Artil- 
lery has a number of its former comrades buried here, and this 
organization, like many others in the British service, has a long 
vista of traditions behind it and cherishes the names on the rolls 
of past times. Within recent years it has paid to have this 
cemetery cleared of the rank growth that so quickly destroys 
structures made by man in the tropics, and the graves of its mem- 
bers repaired. From the reading of the inscriptions it seems that 
a majority of the men were victims of yellow fever, which at 
times took fearful toll in this region, and died between 1850 and 
1860. 
The most prominent feeling that asserts itself in the mind of 
the writer when visiting such places is the sense of the futility 
of our efforts to perpetuate the memory of the individual who 
“struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard 
no more.’’ Less than a century has passed since most of these 
men were buried on Shirley Heights and yet the inscriptions 
are already hard to decipher on some of the stones. Many have 
fallen and the graves themselves are practically obliterated. 
Possibly a more practical reflection is the futility of expending 
large sums of money on fortifications and military or naval 
bases which are often doomed to fall into ruin without having 
served any useful purpose whatever. So far as I could ascer- 
tain, no hostile gun was ever fired at English Harbor or the 
surrounding fortifications. 
To the north of English Harbor is one of the highest hills of 
Antigua, known as Monk’s Hill, at the summit of which is a sig- 
nal station from which approaching vessels are reported by 
telephone. The keeper has been on duty for something like 
twenty years, during which time he has been absent only a few 
days. The hill was also strongly fortified and extensive ruins 
are still to be seen. Our observations in this region inclined us 
to admit as reasonable the statement made by Algernon E. 
Aspinall in his ‘‘ West Indian Tales of Old,’’ p. 171:— 
