[March, 1859.] 65 



ST. LUCIA AND BARBADOS. 



Remarks on the Climate and Vegetation of St. Lucia and Bar- 

 bados, West Indies. By John Sim. 



The island of St. Lucia is situated between sixty and sixty-one 

 degrees of west longitude from Greenwich, and thirteen and four- 

 teen degrees of north latitude, and is nearly eighty miles west- 

 north-west of Barbados. It is twenty-two miles in length, and 

 nearly the same in breadth, and is mountainous and densely 

 wooded throughout its whole extent. The climate is extremely 

 moist and warm; .rain, more or less, in the shape of heavy and 

 rapid showers, falls almost every day of the year ; they are how- 

 ever generally of short duration, seldom lasting more than ten 

 or fifteen minutes ; yet instances occur of their being considerably 

 protracted beyond these periods. These showers more resemble 

 waterspouts than the rains current in the British Isles. 



The temperature during the entire year is very uniform, seldom 

 differing more than two or three degrees ; the maximum range of 

 the thermometer in the shade, and freely exposed to the trade- 

 wind, rarely attains 90° during the day, and its minimum in the 

 night not much below 80°, except the elevation above the sea- 

 level be considerable. I occupied a station 700 feet above the 

 ocean, and only in one instance observed it so low as 74°. From 

 careful observation, I found the mean temperature of 1841 at 

 that elevation to be nearly 81° of Fahrenheit. The months of 

 August, September, and October are by the natives denominated 

 Hurricane Months, because the period of these fearful visitations 

 is mostly limited to these three, although they sometimes occur 

 rather later, as the most dreadful tornado ever witnessed in St. 

 Lucia took place in October, towards the end of last century. 

 One of these tempests I observed myself, but should never wish 

 to witness it again. I can conceive of nothing more "terrible in 

 nature, an earthquake, when violent, excepted. These hurricanes 

 are truly awful. During their prevalence the stoutest heart must 

 quail. Houses are blown down, trees torn from their roots, 

 sugar-plantations inundated and destroyed, and the fair face of 

 nature, adorned with fruits and flowers, is, in the course of an 

 hour or less, one universal scene of devastation and ruin. So 

 great is the roar of the tempest, that the peals of the thunder are 



N. S. VOL. III. K 



