206 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



gradients of the parapet-guarded road from 

 Moneague to E war ton come groups of stalwart 

 blacks of either sex, all clad in many hues, some 

 grinning, others dour, swinging along with the 

 rhythmic gait of their kind, the basket of fruit 

 balanced on each woolly skull, the empty hands 

 thrown out to balance their swaying bodies. Over 

 the beautiful valley, down there on my right, the 

 evening mists roll like a thunderous sea too distant 

 to reach the ear. The views of peaks and depths 

 are magnificent, and the vegetation runs riot, 

 broken only by the picturesque interruption of 

 thatched villages or long perspectives. The 

 Devonians who have settled in this lovely part 

 of the island, looking through their ever-open 

 windows on good red earth and lush pastures, can, 

 with little effort of the imagination, picture them- 

 selves back home in their fairyland between the 

 Channels. Seeing that communication with King- 

 ston and the outer world generally is wholly by 

 road and rail, a laborious pilgrimage not repeated 

 more frequently than is essential, these cattle-pens, 

 which cover anything from five hundred to five 

 thousand acres, are wonderfully self-contained. 

 Indian, Hereford, Texas and other cattle are the 

 chief interest of the pen-keepers, and the beasts 

 fatten wonderfully on guinea and para grass. The 

 great drawback of the pastures is the frightful 

 abundance of ticks, three or four kinds of them, 

 which ruin the animals and bring misery to those 

 who have charge of them. Several plans have 

 been mooted for ridding the cattle districts of 

 these pests. Some hold the belief that Cuban pen- 

 keepers have solved the difficulty by firing the 



