; 
94 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
they formed a thick roof, and one had to look straight up to see the 
light, then the gully becomes more open and filled with the most 
fantastic shadows. ‘The road was one of continual graceful curves, 
and the skill of some of the best engineers had been enlisted in its 
construction ; but I saw a sight distressing to any Canadian ideas— 
women breaking stones for road purposes. The day will speedily 
come when the women in Jamaica will find work consistent with 
their position and sex. At a meeting a day or two after I witnessed 
this sight, at which I addressed fully 1,000 people, I denounced this, 
and was cheered to the echo. 
On we go, singing as we rolled along in the carriige till we 
reached Ocho Rios, the town of eight streams, snugly cuddled 
together on the seashore. ‘The broad expanse of sea was not 
hidden, but beautified by groves of cocoanut trees. When Roaring 
River burst upon our vision it was in some places tumbling, rushing, 
roaring and tearing along; in other places sparkling and gurgling 
like a Scotch burn or graceful brook quietly flowing to the sea—a 
picture of restfulness, after its racing and chasing down the mountain 
side. As we drove along to St. Anne’s Bay in the evening the air 
was laden with the most delicate odours, the perfume of a thousand 
flowers being brought out with the falling dew. As Lady Blake one 
day said to me, the island was “the Garden of Eden without the 
serpent.” There is not a snake to be seen in Jamaica. 
We started off in the morning to Brownstown, and oh, what a 
drive was that. The morning was cool and breezy ; the sea to the 
right of us washed the golden sands, and the everlasting hills to the 
left were covered with verdure to the very top. Cabins of the natives 
away up the hillside, creeping flowering plants adding beauty 
to the logwood hedges, mingled with orange. There were the 
graceful tops of the cocoanut trees waving in the morning breeze, as 
far as the eye could reach, the invigorating breeze filling one’s lungs 
and making boys of us all, causing us to burst into song. It was 
enough to make a dumb man speak, to say nothing of making us 
sing. As we drove along we saluted the natives, and in return 
received the graceful curtsey of the women and the respectful recog- 
nition of the men. Here and there we saw piles of limes on the 
roadside ready to be carted to market, carts filled with oranges ; we 
met vans with tires on the wheels very many inches broad, laden 
