FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 227 



tourist resort. The so-called remedies are futile, 

 with the possible exception of the fresh juice of a 

 lime diluted with a little water, and applied to the 

 bites at once. Carbolised vaseline and witch-hazel 

 {Hamamelis) fail utterly to bring relief, and as for 

 the strong essential oils of clove and lavender, in 

 praise of which so much has been written (by those 

 who sell them), I venture to say, after having tried 

 them in Africa and Australia, that mosquitoes like 

 them rather than otherwise, regarding them much 

 as a teetotaller regards a dash of Angostura bitters 

 in a beaker of ginger-beer. Well, I take my leave of 

 the mosquitoes of Jamaica, which amount in all to 

 twenty or thirty different kinds, which multiply 

 after their accursed kind in drains, swamps, cess- 

 pools, crab-holes, the depressions made by the feet 

 of cattle walking over mud, and other nurseries 

 suited to such gentry. Malaria, yellow fever, 

 elephantiasis and bloodworms are among the boons 

 they bring to mankind. Only the female sings and 

 bites. The male is a silent fellow, who keeps him- 

 self to himself and lives on a simple vegetable diet. 

 There are medical men who vow that, of Stegomyia 

 at any rate, the male also is a bloodsucker, but there 

 are more who doubt it. 



From Montego Bay to Port Antonio I coasted 

 on the Baker, chartered by the United Fruit 

 Company. With us travelled about 10,000 bunches 

 of green and golden bananas, to which we added 

 another 10,000 at Ora Cabessa and Port Maria. 

 At Montego Bay the fruit came alongside in long 

 boats, one of which I managed to photograph from 

 above, each carrying three or four hundred bunches. 

 Black lady-greengrocers, retailing fruit for the 



