A LOST FEBRUARY 



and sculptured by the old ice /];od.s in late p^eolo^nc 

 times as ours was. It looks crude and unfinislied 

 to northern eyes, like certain of our Rocky Mountain 

 views. In the Blue Mountains, however, one ^'ots 

 glimpses of the long, sweeping, masterful lines that 

 are characteristic of our mountain scenery. The 

 higher parts of the mountains are in the grand 

 style. They suggest the Catskills, but are steeper 

 and loftier by several hundred feet, Blue Mountain 

 Peak reaching an altitude of seventy-three hun- 

 dred feet. Their backs are not so broad as those 

 of the Catskills; they have not been worn down in 

 the same way. They are wooded to their summits. 

 One of our most delightful experiences was the 

 week we spent upon them at New Castle, four 

 thousand feet above the sea. 



Jamaica is poor in animal life. No squirrels, nor 

 foxes, nor rabbits, nor marmots, nor bears, nor deer 

 in the woods, — no four-footed game at all, and 

 only a short list of native birds. We met a few of 

 our own summer residents there spending the win- 

 ter, — the Maryland yellow-throat, the black and 

 white creeping warbler, the redstart. In one place 

 on the edge of some woods I saw the oven-bird 

 walking about in its pretty, contented way as at 

 home, and along the mountain streams I heard the 

 sharp chijp of the water-wagtail, as along my own 

 streams. None of these birds were in song, and 

 probably in early March they turned their faces 



2G5 



