58 TIMEHRI. 
of vegetation which distinguishes the town, and espe- 
cially the number of graceful palms constantly waving 
their green tops against the brilliant blue of the tropical 
sky. Then, of course, the trenches strike one with a sense 
of strangeness, and the presence amidst these unaccus- 
tomed environments of such familiar objeés as tele- 
phone wires and tram-cars enhance rather than diminish 
the effeét of novelty. The sight of poultry, goats and 
other live-stock picking up their living in some of the 
most frequented streets, is at first somewhat comical to 
those who have always associated such things with 
farm-yards or suburban back gardens, and the almost. 
entire absence of smoke is another thing which the 
Englishman finds a difficulty in reconciling with the faé& 
that he is in a large and busy town. These are trivial 
matters, but I write them merely to show what first strikes 
the visitor in the capital city of the Colony. After you 
have once mentally assimilated the trees and the trenches, 
and the terra-cotta coloured roadways, there is not much 
in the town itself to arrest the fancy or to please the eye. 
It lacks that distin€tiveness of local colour which one 
expects on coming for the first time to the tropics, and 
one is soon thrown back upon the study of the human 
document. Here there is enough novelty to satisfy the 
most observant traveller. 
I suppose that few cities in the world can equal George- 
town in the variety of races représented amongst its 
inhabitants—that is to say, in proportion to its population. 
Although I had prepared myself by a perusal of Rop- 
wAy’s “West Indies and the Spanish Main,” and with 
information from such other sources as were at command, 
the aétual sight of the racial mélange which may be daily. 
oa 
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