NVONDFRS OF THb OF. FT 27 



a question that scientific pnfople can settle for them- 

 selves. It makes no difference where it came from ; 

 it is here, and is ver>- useful. Nearly all the houses 

 are built of it. Vou have only to saw down iuto 

 the quarries to get beautiful big bkvks of it that 

 make handsome and substantial houses. The blocks 

 harden by exposure to the air. and in this climate 

 soon become as durable as granite. Out of 

 the rock. tOv\ water-tanks are built to catch rain- 

 water."' 



The innumerable reefs, with their warm lagoons. 

 are the site of important turtle and pearl fisheries. 

 as well as the sponge fishery, and of the salt and 

 ambergris industries. In the larger islands are 

 produced immense quantities of fruit of all kinds, 

 especially pine-apples, grape-fruit, oranges, pome- 

 granates, and bananas. Other important productions 

 include the sugar-cane, tobacco, ginger, coffee, and 

 indigo. As a matter of fact, there is hardly a 

 tropical fruit or product that will not grow in this 

 archipelago, and most of the European vegetables 

 can be cultivated without difficulty. 



Plant life, in its myriad forms, is most luxuriant. 

 The mango is a fruit rarely seen out of the tropics, 

 but to a white person the taste is certainly an 

 acquired one. for certain specimens of this fruit rasce 

 very strongly of turpentine. Then there is the 

 luscious and juicy sapodilla. a kind of pear. If the 

 fruit falls prematurely from the tree the natives 



* "In $«taar Laads. " By WUli»m DrT»i)U«. H«itxt Brothers. New 

 York 



