1894
Feb. 25
(No 5)
St. Christopher (or "St Kitts")
  The garden soil in this Park is of much the
same color and general appearance as that in
Cambridge gardens. After the showers it emitted
the same delicious fresh earthy smell. The roses also
were similar to ours but of rather more straggling
and weedy growth.
  The only water birds which I have seen here are a 
few Brown Pelicans. They walk about on the beach
within a few rods of men at work and float like
buoys among the boats or fly about close to the
wharf and plunge down after fish disappearing for
a moment beneath the surface.
  One of our passengers who visited a sugar plantation
to-day reports that the Mongoose was introduced 
on this island from Jamaica six years ago and
is now very abundant in the cane fields. The
planters say that it has not severely diminished
the numbers of the cane rats but it has destroyed
about all the lizards and ground-nesting birds and
poultry raising has become almost impossible. But 
the worst results which have followed the introduction
of this noxious animal have been the great
increase of two species of insects which bore into
and destroy sugar cane and which the
lizards and birds formerly kept in check. Many
of the planters fear that the sugar raising will
ultimately have to be abandoned.
  Monkeys of two species are said to abound.
