IV PREFACE. 



sometimes recorded dales, and other apparently 

 trivial circumstances, in his observations. It is 

 because of his conviction, that an observer is 

 hardly competent to determine what circumstance 

 is trivial, and what is important : many a recorded 

 fact in science has lost half its value from the 

 omission of some attendant circumstance, which 

 the observer either did not notice, or thought 

 irrelevant. It is better to err on the side of 

 minuteness than of vagueness. 



The author takes this opportunity of proffering 

 his cordial thanks to those friends in Jamaica 

 who kindly assisted his investigations; and par- 

 ticularly to Andrew Gr. Johnston, Esq., of Port- 

 land, and George Wilkie, Esq., of Spanish-town. 



London, March, 1847- 



