ST. HELENA 143 



and fires are generally welcomed. Jamestown and other 

 valleys are then just sufficiently cool to be pleasant, and fire- 

 places are unknown in the houses, except where necessary 

 for cooking. Visitors find the mildness of the climate 

 sometimes too relaxing, but this is quickly remedied by 

 going from one part to another in the hills, for the different 

 parts possess great differences of climate. The rainfall 

 varies much in different years, and also differs greatly ac- 

 cording to locality. Taking 1898 as an average, 36*06 

 inches fell at Mount Pleasant near Sandy Bay ridge ; but 

 only 4-82 inches in Jamestown. 



A prisoner of war, in one of his humorous contributions 

 to the little paper issued in Deadwood Camp, De Krijgs- 

 evangene, says : — 



There are two seasons : (i) the rainy season, in which rain is 

 the rule and sunshine the exception ; (2) the dry season, which 

 resembles the rainy one so much that the mistaking of one for the 

 other has never yet been ascribed to ignorance. 



But this, it must be admitted, was written after an excep- 

 tionally wet summer. 



The length of day varies with the different seasons about 

 one hour. The longest day is December 21, when darkness 

 falls about 7.30 p.m., the shortest day being June 21, when 

 the sun sets about six o'clock. There is scarcely any twi- 

 light, night closing in almost immediately after sunset. 



The soil is very productive, and trees and shrubs from all 

 parts of the world flourish. In the grounds of Plantation 

 House there are not only the plants and trees indigenous to 

 the island, but trees from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, 

 and Polynesia. 



The Araucaria excelsa or Norfolk island pine, so 

 commonly seen as a pot-plant in English conservatories, 

 grows here to a height of over 100 feet. Side by side with 

 a tree from Ceylon may be seen the South Sea Island panda- 

 mus or screw pine ; the oak, the cedar, the apple, the guava, 

 the peach and banana mingle their foliage, while here and 

 there an indigenous tree stands amidst a host of aliens— the 

 mimosa of New South Wales, the Scotch firs and the bamboo 

 of India, with the pines of the North and the Australian 

 blue gum or eucalyptus, seeming to outvie each other in 

 the luxuriance of their growth. 



