50 BLUEFIELDS. 



trees, the tone of the whole, the sunlight, the suffused 

 sky, the balmy atmosphere, the variety of the foliage, 

 the massive light and shadow, the dark, deep open- 

 ings in the forest, all new, rich, and strange ; — not 

 only new individually, but quite new and strange in 

 character, quite unlike anything that I had seen 

 before; — all this I cannot hope to convey. Nor can 

 I hope to convey more than a very, very faint reflec- 

 tion of that delightful excitement with which I gazed 

 around, bewildered and entranced, almost, with the 

 variety of charming objects, all at once appealing for 

 attention ; the remembrance of which, protracted 

 as it was through eighteen months' duration, with 

 scarcely any abatement, has given in my habitual 

 feelings, a kind of paradisaical association with lovely 

 Jamaica. 



BELMONT BEACH. 



The great post-road of the southern side, after 

 passing Bluefields, (supposing the traveller to be pro- 

 ceeding eastward), runs along the coast to Belmont, 

 Mount Edgecumbe, &c., often at the very water's 

 edge, and sometimes separated from the sea only by 

 a narrow belt of woods. Close to Bluefields, the 

 shore is a beach of white sand, not siliceous, but 

 consisting almost wholly of coral, shells, echini, &c., 

 bleached and pulverised by the long action of the 

 weather, A small stream running through a foetid 

 morass crosses the road about half a mile from Blue- 

 fields, and has deposited a broad flat bank of mud at 

 its mouth, which is uncovered at low water. At this 



