26 ALLIGATOR POND. 



ALLIGATOR POND. 



Dec. 9th. — A few hours' run from Port Royal 

 brought us to Alhgator Pond. Most parts of the 

 intermediate coast had a most sterile appearance, the 

 hills being covered with small scrubby wood, unre- 

 lieved for miles by a single plantation. The little 

 village of Carlisle displayed a pleasanter scene, where 

 on the flat were seen fields of sugar-cane of a delicate 

 light green hue waving in the breeze, windmills with 

 their sails in revolution, the smoke ascending from 

 the boiling-houses and other buildings of a sugar 

 estate, and men and cattle actively performing the 

 several duties of the culture or manufacture. Alli- 

 gator Pond is the mouth of a valley which runs up 

 between the May Day Mountains and the Santa 

 Cruz Mountains. It consists of a few stores, with 

 a wharf, a dwelling-house, and a few negro huts. I 

 went on shore with an insect net. On the sandy beach, 

 so loose and heavy that I could scarcely walk on it, 

 the Convolvulus pes caprce was growing in profusion, 

 covering its upper part with a carpet of verdure, and 

 trailing its long stems in every direction over the 

 beach, while its beautiful purple blossoms, mingled 

 with the pink flowers of the Canavalia rosea, grace- 

 fully relieved the dark foliage. Here an active pre- 

 daceous beetle {Cicindela Guadalupensis) was run- 

 ning and flying alternately with the wary agihty 

 common to the genus, so as to be diflicult of capture. 



The soil all around consists of the same heavy 

 sand, into whicli the feet sink to the ankle at every 



