CHAPTER VI 
BARBADOS 
Although the writer realizes the fatuity of a discussion of the 
physical, political and social conditions of a country based on a 
few weeks’ visit, there was so much that interested us during 
our stay among the Barbadians that it would seem ungracious 
to pass this subject without presenting the impressions gleaned 
as a by-product of our more serious scientific work. 
This island is perhaps as little known to the American pub- 
le as any in the West Indies. There appear to be no American 
residents there except the United States consul and his family ; 
although there is considerable commercial relation between the 
two countries, and several lines of steamers ply between them 
regularly even in war time. Normally, there are at least four 
lines of communication between Barbados and New York. 
Steamers leave both ends of the line at least one a week on the 
average. Bridgetown is a port of call for many vessels plying 
between North and South America and between Europe and 
South America. 
Barbados is the easternmost of the great West Indian chain 
of islands, being actually over six hundred miles east of New 
York and in latitude 13 north. It is almost constantly swept by 
the trade-winds and is exceedingly healthy; and not too warm 
for comfort, except at times in the city of Bridgetown, where 
the glaring white streets and comparatively tall buildings re- 
sult in a temperature which is at times somewhat trying, reach- 
ing about 88°, but we never found it really hot at night. 
The island is rudely triangular in shape, being about twenty- 
one miles long by fourteen miles wide. The coast shows less 
indentation than any other that I have seen, and as a result of 
this there are no real harbors, Carlisle Bay near Bridgetown 
being merely an open roadstead, but offering a lee shore to the 
prevailing winds. The land is low and gently undulating for 
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