COXCLUSION. 495 



they walked, solemn priests in black robes and shovel- 

 hats, the children, the men, the posadas (taverns), 

 everything v^^ore a character so novel, so unlike any 

 thing in our colonies, that I was greatly entertained. 



In an hour or two we were again afloat, and steam- 

 ing away for St. Thomas, where the sun on his rising 

 the next morning found us snugly anchored. It had 

 again been raining hard, and the mist hung over the 

 town and slopes behind ; yet the beauty of the town, 

 rising from the sea on the sides of three conical hills, 

 in the form of three pyramids of buildings, could not 

 be concealed. I walked on a hill at the entrance of 

 the harbour, covered with stunted bushes, and spent 

 an hour or two entomologising. The insects were 

 almost entirely different from those with which I had 

 been familiar in Jamaica. 



On the 16th we left St. Thomas, arrived on the 

 20th at the little isles of Bermuda, with their English- 

 looking scenery and the clear transparent sea around 

 their rocks, as still as the water of a Polynesian lagoon, 

 as little answering as might be to the anticipations 

 one might have formed of the " still vexed Ber- 

 moothes." We found the steamer Clyde lying here, 

 migrated from the Avon to her, and reached South- 

 ampton on the 5th August, 1846. 



Here I take a respectful leave of my readers and 

 of tropical natural history together. If I have suc- 

 ceeded in imparting to the former a small portion of 

 the delight, admiration, and enthusiasm, which invest 

 in my own feelings the things I have essayed to pre- 



