A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 



267 



up and clown the coast of Central America, where they are very proud 

 of the fact that they speak English, and that they are free men. 



It is doubtless a surprise to many people when they discover how 

 far south Jamaica really is. The island lies directly opposite Cape 

 Gracias a Dios on the Mosquito coast of Nicaragua, and it is so situ- 

 ated that when the Panama Canal is finished, it will be a most impor- 

 tant strategic point. The chief business of the island is planting sugar, 

 coffee, bananas, etc. The natives work as a rule from seven in the 

 morning until four in the afternoon, with an hour out for noon break- 

 fast. They rarely work Saturdays. The average pay for field labor 

 is fifty cents a day. The island, although only one hundred and forty- 



PORT ANTONIO. 



four miles long and forty-nine miles wide, has a climate varying from 

 tropical to temperate. 



One of the first questions that the prospective rubber planter asks is, 

 "What is the rainfall?" In no way can this be answered so comprehen- 

 sively in the case of Jamaica as by the accompanying rain chart reproduced 

 from "The Rainfall of Jamaica," by Maxwell Hall, M. A., F. R. A. S., F. 

 R. M. S., and published by the Institute of Jamaica. The mean rainfall 

 for the whole island annually is sixty-six inches. The northeastern end, 

 however, has an area where the rainfall is one hundred inches and over, 

 shown by the darkest portion of the chart. Northwest of 

 this there is a tract where it is from seventy-five to ninety- 

 five inches which is indicated by the next lighter shade. The 



