90 A EIDE TO CONTENT. 



shallow caverns have been excavated in the gravelly 

 sides, from the roofs of which many ferns and 

 climbers hang in wild grace and beauty. The Cave- 

 Swallow shoots in and out, pursuing the minute 

 insects that dance in the air ; and the forest around 

 rings with the voices of many birds. A little way 

 farther, among many other flowers, a beautiful little 

 Ipomea, resembling the delicate Quamoclit, but pure 

 white, with digitate leaves, covers the low wall-fences 

 with its long graceful twining stems and star-like 

 blossoms. That fine butterfly PapUio Pelaus, may 

 very commonly be seen flitting about this shaded 

 lane; with its low, irregular, not very rapid flight, 

 it dances along from bush to bush, and from flower 

 to flower, rifling them as it goes ; now and then rest- 

 ing on a leaf to suck while it vibrates strongly its 

 half-erected wings, in a manner peculiar to itself. 



After awhile we break away from the woods, and 

 open a scene of exquisite beauty, but of a totally 

 different character. It is the noble sugar-estate of 

 Peter's Vale ; now, however, like so many other fine 

 estates, thrown out of sugar-cultivation, and its 

 buildings and offices hastening to swift decay. It is 

 a long and spacious valley, bounded by wooded hills, 

 which almost everywhere assume a rounded or conical 

 form, clothed principally with clumps and groves of 

 the dark green Pimento. Yet in one quarter the 

 native forest covers the shaggy sides of the moun- 

 tains, which slope up till they merge into the ridge 

 of Bluefields ; and, in another direction, over the in- 

 tervening hills, the mountain of Gi'and Vale rises to 

 view, hazy and blue in the distance, but with the 



