ST. VINCENT. : 181 
from the steamer, fronting which and the sea is the 
police station, a fine, large building of stone, the best 
public building in the smaller English islands. A 
broad street borders the bay, and two more run parallel 
to it farther back, until the bordering amphitheatre of 
hills prevents further building. Streets intersect these 
at right angles and end at the base line of the hills, 
save three or four which traverse the valleys to estates 
among the mountains, and two that ascend the hills 
and extend around either shore to windward and lee- 
ward. Valleys run up from the bay far into the moun- 
tains, and the various spurs of hills increase in height 
as they recede from shore, so that Kingston and its bay 
are half encircled by a range of hills and mountains, 
above and around whose summits the clouds continu- 
ally play. 
The highest peak is Morne St. Andrews; rising 
to the east of it, and commanding the town, is a high, 
steep hill known as Dorsetshire Height, crested by a 
ruined fort. When the Caribs, in the last century, 
had overrun the island to windward, they swarmed 
upon this hill, attacked the fort, made prisoners the 
garrison, and were dislodged by soldiers from the 
town only after a desperate fight. There are a few 
old cannon remaining on the heights, but dismounted 
and imbedded in the earth. Most of them were 
bought by an enterprising speculator, during the late 
war between North and South, and sold to one party 
or the other. 
The sunset view from here is superb. Conspicuous 
are the palmistes, or cabbage palms; one house is 
encircled by them, a white house with bright red 
roof; they raise themselves erect in clumps of a score 
