FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 229 



gondolas would have moved with more comfort than 

 cabs. The railroad journey back to Kingston 

 skirts the Caribbean for some miles, crossing more 

 picturesque rivers than are to be found on the 

 whole of the rest of the island's tracks. It takes 

 leave of the sea shortly after passing Annotto Bay 

 (so-called, I understand, from the absence of 

 annotto, a vegetable used in the colouring of red 

 cheeses and butters), and plunges once more into 

 the mountains, which it surmounts at the leisurely 

 pace inseparable from such gradients, eventually 

 reaching Kingston by way of Bog Walk and 

 Spanish Town. This completed for me the entire 

 run of Jamaica's railways, and if that mode of 

 travel has its drawbacks in hot weather, there is no 

 other which, in a short time and at small expense, 

 gives so grand a view of the beautiful scenery 

 which, in all the West Indies, I believe Dominica 

 alone pretends to rival. 



As a winter tourist resort, Jamaica is only at the 

 beginning of its history, and just as the holiday folk 

 have come to the rescue of many a decaying fishery 

 centre on the coast of England, bringing back a 

 prosperity that had been despaired of, so the island 

 may confidently look to the tourists of two hemi- 

 spheres to restore the good times that, industrially, 

 appeared to have passed. For its development as 

 a tourist centre there are several important schemes 

 in the air, but the capital is in every case in dollars, 

 not in sterling. This, from one standpoint, is to be 

 regretted ; from another, it is of no moment whence 

 the money comes so long as it is not lacking. The 

 winter climate deserves superlatives, and even dur- 

 ing rather more than a fortnight in June and July I 



