A LOST FEBRUARY 



errands, one day going to Kingston and back with 

 great ease. 



The climate at this elevation was much like 

 that of the Catskills in August, or even cooler; the 

 nights so cool that we could not sit out on the 

 veranda later than eight o'clock. A double woolen 

 blanket was not too much covering on the bed. 

 The whole scenery of the heavens is shifted a little 

 when you get so far south. The moon passes far- 

 ther north, Orion and the Pleiades seem right 

 over head, and the Big Dipper is quite hidden 

 behind the ridge of Katherine's Peak. Twice 

 we climbed to the top of the peak along one of the 

 narrow graded roads called "bridle-paths," that 

 thread all the valleys and mountain passes in 

 this island, and find their way, always an easy, lei- 

 surely way, to all the mountain summits. In many 

 places the path was carved out of the soft, crum- 

 bling rock. It was Uned and draped and cushioned 

 with mosses and ferns and vines and various trop- 

 ical growths. Near the top of the mountain two 

 colored men were clearing it of its various wild 

 growths with the ubiquitous machete. This tool, 

 which is carried by nearly every countryman in 

 Jamaica, is the one universal tool. It serves as a 

 scythe with which to mow grass, and as an axe to 

 cut wood and fell trees. It is the tool for tropical 

 jungles and tangles. With this in his hand, how one 

 can slash his way through the dense, spiny, vine- 



