GtJPPY — DC MTN1CA. 
581 
picturesque scenery. On the hillsides are acres of tree- 
ferns. The rocky slopes are covered with Begonias and a 
bramble ( Rubus. jamaicensis) bearing a fruit much like a 
raspberry. Here and there were dense bushes of the 
Caesalpinia horn' da, called 1 wait-a-little J or arrete-negre , into 
the branches of which, if one got, one would hardly come 
away with a whole skin, to say nothing of dress. It is 
one of the most terribly armed of shrubs. I searched for 
seeds, but in its pods I only found small centipedes, which 
had evidently appreciated the defence, afforded them 
against their enemies, the birds. I should not omit to 
mention a pretty primrose-like flower that appeared in 
abundance by the wayside ; it is, I believe, Episcia 
melittifolia. 
Every ravine has a stream running at the bottom of it 
• — and there are some large rivers, but they all possess 
the same characters of clearness and rapidity. These 
streams furnish an abundant source of power, which is 
made available by the sugar estates for grinding their 
canes. The streams of Dominica suffer but little diminu- 
tion in the dry part of the year, and this character i toge- 
ther with their great fall, renders them very advantageous 
as a motive power for sugar mills, and enables the plan- 
ters to dispense with steam and’ cattle. 
At Souffriere there are, as the name implies, sulphur 
springs and deposits of sulphur. These are situated on 
the banks of a ravine, and on the face of the cliff-like 
Escarpment which forms the background of the Souffriere 
valley, — which indeed seems like a vast crater with its sea- 
ward side demolished. Sulphur springs are a common 
feature all over the Island, and I had an opportunity of 
examining some of them more carefully than those at 
