FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 217 



were the ordinary fireflies, not, I imagine, very 

 different from those I knew so many summers ago 

 in Florence. Then there were others, known here 

 as the " Jumping Peenie" (Pyrophorus noctilucus), 

 which I also saw in Cuba. This curious little 

 beetle can light and extinguish its vivid little lamps 

 at will, though with what object no one has ex- 

 plained. They are situated near the eyes and are 

 so bright as to be conspicuous even in a well-lighted 

 room. If grasped not too tightly between the 

 thumb and forefinger, this entertaining insect gives 

 a series of convulsive jerks. When laid on its back, 

 it may jump several inches in the air, usually 

 alighting feet first and flying away. It furnishes, in 

 fact, a convenient subject of after-dinner wagers, 

 and large sums may be lost (by those who have 

 large sums and small brains) on the stirring doubt 

 whether it will land on its feet or on its back. 



The industries of this beautiful island are so 

 varied, the soil so rich in pasture and crops, the 

 country so well watered and with such excellent 

 communication by land and sea, that the current 

 talk of stagnation in so resourceful a colony is hard 

 indeed to understand. Apathy, on the part of both 

 the State and the individual, mismanagement, 

 absenteeism and similar evils are declared to be at 

 the root of Jamaica's commercial backsliding, at 

 any rate by those who write for the papers without 

 any other stake in the game. I do not propose to 

 point the way to fortune, for I never yet walked 

 a yard of it myself, nor ever shook the pagoda tree 

 to my own profit. 



The sugar industry, so long the mainstay of the 

 island, has in part succumbed under successive 



