BOOK II. CHAP. VIJJ. 127 



front. Another fcene, not Icfs magnificent, though more awful, 

 frequently prefents itfelf iu the hot months. The clouds afleni- 

 bling about noon gradually thicken, grow black, and defcend 

 lower ; till they appear a fpacious fea, clofing over and covering 

 the inferior obJ£6:s entirely from our view. Soon afterwards, the 

 vapoury particles begin to condenfe and fall in rain ; the lightning 

 flaflies with great vivacity, as it traverfes along, in a variety of an- 

 gular or Terpentine dire«5lions. We hear the majeftic thunder 

 rolling at our feet, and reverberated by a thoufand echoes among 

 the hitis. This tumultuous- interlude continues until the vapours, 

 grown lighter by a plentiful difcharge of their contents, begin to 

 re-afcend and difperfe, climbing over the flately pinnacles of thefe 

 mountains, like flocks of (heep retiring haftily to their fold. 



Whenever the fog breaks or dlfperfes aboufnoon, the fun-beams 

 fiirike here with more power than would have been imagined at fo 

 great an elevation. But the mofly covering of the ground, which 

 is adapted to imbibe the warmth impreffed upon it by every ftrong 

 gleam, and the fudden variations in the fenfible llate of the at- 

 mofphere, by the interpofition or recefs of thcfe vapours, doubtlefs 

 affeO: a perfon here in like manner as the fudden tranfition in 

 England from a cold, raw air into a heated, clofe apartment. The 

 little pike,, from whence the moft agreeable view is taken, is about 

 half a mile from Mr. Adams's houfe, and named Catharine Flill, 

 in honour of governor Moore's lady, who had the curiofity to pay 

 it a vifit in the year 1760. This hill is not much lefs than a mile 

 perpendicular height above the level of the fea. The walk to it 

 from the houfe is not in the leall: incommodious on account of heat, 

 even in the middle of the day. Who peregrinates into thefe re- 

 gions finds every frefh afcent, however fliort, afl:c>rding not only a 

 new air, but a new fcene of nature, in regard to its profpeft, its 

 plants, and animals.. The birds, the hih, and infe£bs, are many 

 of them totally different from thofe we meet with in the lower ii- 

 tuations : and the face of things carries fo little fimilitude in ap- 

 pearance to what commonly occurs in other parts of the ifland, 

 that one feems to have been tranfported by fome magic vehicle into 

 a foreign country. This obfervation holds, it is true, in a certain 

 degree, with refpedt likewife to fome other diflricts of Jamaica j. 



for 



