KINGSTON. 18 



rately, and would spend an hour running* up ami down 

 stairs with things which, with a little forethought, they 

 might have transported at a single trip. Excellent fresh 

 fish, good mutton, poor poultry, and of course fruit of un- 

 equalled richness and inexhaustible varieties were common- 

 ly served in English style ; the rooms were spacious and 

 pleasant, though scantily furnished. It may be interesting 

 to some to know that for these accommodations I paid 

 fourteen dollars a week. 



My first impressions of Kingston were not favorable, and 

 I had no occasion upon further acquaintance to change 

 them. The city is well enough situated, on ground gradu- 

 ally rising from the sea, at the rate of about one hundred 

 feet to the mile, and the mountains which bound it in the 

 rear, about four miles distant, furnish a most desirable re- 

 fuge from the extreme heats of summer, or to invalids who 

 require a more bracing temperature occasionally than can 

 be furnished below. In a drive of four hours, one may be 

 transferred from an average temperature of eighty degrees 

 to one of sixty. But the city of Kingston is a most undesi- 

 rable residence. The streets are all quite narrow, scarcely 

 wide enough for alleys. The houses are all partially dila- 

 pidated, and of course old. Though I have been through 

 nearly every street, I have not seen a single new house 

 erecting, save an Insane Asylum, which, by the way, has 

 been suspended for want of funds. A terrible fire laid a 



