36 BLUEFIELDS BAY. 



Bluefields and the pens around, sloped up from the 

 sea, studded with white houses that gleamed in the 

 rising sun. Further to the eastward lay the park- 

 like estate of Mount Edgecumbe, its greensward 

 varied with groves and clumps of the graceful Pi- 

 mento. Behind, rose the mighty rampart of the 

 Bluefields Ridge, rising into one conical peak of half 

 a mile in height, and others of less elevation, and 

 jutting out into the bay in a bold promontory, 

 covered, from the rounded summit to the very foot 

 upon the sea-beach, with the dark and dense prime- 

 val forest. The town of Savanna-le-Mar, scarcely 

 rising above the sea-level, could be recognised only 

 by the clustered masts of the shipping at anchor ; and 

 from it stretched away, in a long needle-like point, 

 the eastern extremity of the island. Cape Negril. 

 Blue and distant, yet bold and well-defined in out- 

 line, rose above the flat country about Savanna-le- 

 Mar, the Dolphin's Head, a single mountain, re- 

 sembling in form a crouching lion, and reputed to be 

 equal, if not superior, in altitude to Bluefields Peak. 

 In the smooth water in-shore, that accurately re- 

 flected the outline of the land, long strings of Peli- 

 cans were alternately plunging after their prey, and 

 sailing on heavy flagging wing ; and far, far over- 

 head, like black specks against the bright sky, a flock 

 of Man-of-war birds were placidly floating ; resting, 

 if I may be allowed the term, in the lofty air, 

 after their morning meal upon the flying-fish in the 

 offing. 



The water all over this beautiful bay is unusually 

 transparent, so that in six fathoms the bottom, with 



