book: n. chap. vm. 133 



it happens, that we fee fo many porting away from the iflaiid on 

 their hift legs, to perhh under the icy rigours of a Northern chmate ; 

 who, by occalionally withdrawing into tlie more temperate coolnels 

 of the mountains in this ifland, might liave remained in the full; 

 pofleflion of good health ;. or, on their quitting it to re-vi(it their 

 native land, have carried with them a plenitude of bodily vigour,, 

 as well as opulence. The turf on the Ridges is fhort, and inter- 

 mixed with a variety of wild aromatic herbs ; fo that Hicep, but 

 particularly goats, might be paftured on it with great advantage to 

 the delicacy of their flcfli; and, it is probable, their milk would 

 become in fome degree medicinal in feveral dilorders.- No ex- 

 periment has yet been made to adorn the naked pikes with fome of 

 the various fpecies of firs which are fo common in North- America ; 

 and from whence feeds, or young plants, might be jjud in great 

 perfedion, by reafon of the fliortnefs of the paflage. They have- 

 great beauty as well as utility, and would doubtlefs thrive extremely 

 well on thefe eminences. Tiie few fettlements fcattered here have, 

 gardens, which produce almofl: every fort of European culinary ve- 

 getables : thefe, indeed, are cultivated with great fucci;fs at the 

 North-fide of the ifland, and in all the interior parts. I have fcen 

 a piece of ground in one of the North fide parifhes lowed with cab- 

 bage-feed, immediately after the wood had been cleared; and the 

 plants it produced were beyond all comparifon much larger, firmer, 

 and better fla-voured, than any I have ever met with in England. 

 I have feen quince-trees in a garden at Old Woman's Savannah, in 

 Clarendon, which bore very fine, large fruit ;. but the apple-trees 

 do not produce any where fo well as in- the Liguanea Mountains: 

 in the lowerparts of the ifland they (hoot too much into wood, and 

 their fruit degenerates; in thefe mountains, they appear tofrudlify. 

 beft on the highell; fites. The American and European peach, 

 neftarine, and apricot, with feveral fpecies of plumbs,, the raf- 

 berry, ftrawberry, and mulberry, would hardly fail here, if planted 

 in fituations open to the fun, and fheltered' from the violence of the 

 North winds. I have tafled nectarines which were produced 

 in the Vale of Luidas, in St. John's. They were fmall, but re- 

 tained all the delicious flavour peculiar to that fruit. They would 

 certainly fucceed better in fome part of thefe mountains, where the 



general 



