FAR AND NEAR 



what eats them? Why all this terrible panoply 

 of spines ? The spine and the thorn everywhere, I 

 suppose, is simply a sign of savage, unregenerate 

 nature. We saw in Jamaica some species of palm, 

 so bristUng with long, awl-like thorns that one could 

 not look at them without a positive feeling of dis- 

 comfort. Think of the amount of original sin there 

 must be in such a tree! And no fruit to guard, 

 either, — just a spontaneous overflow of the hatred 

 and spitefulness of the old fire-eating, all-devouring, 

 seismic earth! 



Great Salt Pond is shallow, of a uniform depth 

 of about three and a half feet, so that the fisher- 

 men wade in, hauUng their nets. The evaporation 

 is so great that the water seems to be always flowing 

 in from the sea. 



On our way out we found a boat at the inlet with 

 our friends the Davises, — a father and three sons, 

 — from Port Henderson. Their hospitality and soli- 

 citude for our well-being had brought them the four 

 miles with a pail of fresh water. In the inlet, which 

 was running Uke a mill race, we all went in bathing, 

 partly for a bath, but chiefly of necessity to haul and 

 push our boats out against the current. How de- 

 licious that bath was, except that the savage current 

 hurled both my son and me against the banks with 

 such force that our skins were gashed in several 

 places. 



Here we saw that large, beautiful tropical fish, the 

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