96 CONTENT. 



To this scarcity of insects, however, there are two 

 or three local and seasonal exceptions. The high- 

 road, passing just behind and above the cottage of 

 Content, climbs the mountain in the zigzag direction 

 so frequently adopted in Jamaica, to diminish the 

 steepness of the ascent ; and it is a mile or two of 

 this road that forms the most remarkable exception 

 to the general scarcity of insects that I have noticed. 

 During the month of June the shrubs and trees that 

 border the road (which is cut through the forest) are 

 alive with insects of all orders, but particularly 

 Coleoptera; many species of Zo/?^icor«e5, LampyrldcB, 

 BuprestidcB, CassididcE, Chrysomelidce, &c., occur by 

 hundreds on the twigs and leaves ; and the air is alive 

 with butterflies, Hymenoptera and Diptera. I can- 

 not at all tell why this abundance exists ; it is very 

 local ; beyond a certain point, the road, the forest, 

 seem to be unchanged, but the insects have ceased : 

 it is very temporary also ; it suddenly commences 

 about the end of May, and by the middle of July 

 scarcely a dozen beetles are seen where there were 

 thousands. I might have supposed it a casual thing, 

 if I had had but one season's experience ; but in 

 1846 it was the same as in 1815, the same abundance 

 at precisely the same season, and with the same local 

 limits. It is worthy of record, that at the same time 

 and place the leaves of the trees were studded with 

 shelled MoUusca, of the genera Helix, Cylindrella, 

 Helicina, Cyclostoma, Sec, as I never saw them else- 

 where. 



It is not improbable that some peculiarities in the 

 geological or the botanical character of this region 



