36 
BLUEFIELDS BAY. 
Bluefields and the pens around, sloped up from the 
sea, studded with white houses that gleamed in the 
rising sun. Further to the eastward lay the park- 
like estate of Mount Edgecumhe, its greensward 
varied with groves and clumps of the graceful Pi- 
mento. Behind, rose the mighty rampart of the 
Bluefields Ridge, rising into one conical peak of half 
a mile in height, and others of less elevation, and 
jutting out into the bay in a bold promontory, 
covered, from the rounded surhmit to the very foot 
upon the sea-beach, with the dark and dense prime- 
val forest. The town of Savanna-le-Mar, scarcely 
rising above the sea-level, could be recognised only 
by the clustered masts of the shipping at anchor ; and 
from it stretched away, in a long needle-like point, 
the eastern extremity of the island, Cape Negril. 
Blue and distant, yet bold and well-defined in out- 
line, rose above the flat country about Savanna-le- 
Mar, the Dolphin’s Head, a single mountain, re- 
sembling in form a crouching lion, and reputed to be 
equal, if not superior, in altitude to Bluefields Peak. 
In the smooth water in-shore, that accurately re- 
flected the outline of the land, long strings of Peli- 
cans were alternately plunging after their prey, and 
sailing on heavy flagging wing ; and far, far over- 
head, like black specks against the bright sky, a flock 
of Man-of-war birds were placidly floating ; resting, 
if I may be allowed the term, in the lofty air, 
after their morning meal upon the flying-fish in the 
offing. 
The water all over this beautiful bay is unusually 
transparent, so that in six fathoms the bottom, with 
