90 
A RIDE TO CONTENT. 
shallow caverns have been excavated in the gravelly 
sides, from the roofs of which many ferns and 
climbers hang in wild grace and beauty. The Cave- 
Swallow shoots in and out, pursuing the minute 
insects that dance in the air ; and the forest around 
rings with the voices of many birds. A little way 
farther, among many other flowers, a beautiful little 
Ipomea, resembling the delicate Quamoclit^ but pure 
white, with digitate leaves, covers the low wall-fences 
with its long graceful twining stems and star-like 
blossoms. That fine butterfly Papilio Pelaus, may 
very commonly be seen flitting about this shaded 
lane; with its low, irregular, not very rapid flight, 
it dances along from bush to bush, and from flower 
to flower, rifling them as it goes ; now and then rest- 
ing on a leaf to suck while it vibrates strongly its 
half-erected wings, in a manner peculiar to itself. 
After awhile we break away from the woods, and 
open a scene of exquisite beauty, but of a totally 
different character. It is the noble sugar-estate of 
Peter’s Vale ; now, however, like so many other fine 
estates, thrown out of sugar-cultivation, and its 
buildings and offices hastening to swift decay. It is 
a long and spacious valley, bounded by wooded hills, 
which almost everywhere assume a rounded or conical 
form, clothed principally with clumps and groves of 
the dark green Pimento. Yet in one quarter the 
native forest covers the shaggy sides of the moun- 
tains, which slope up till they merge into the ridge 
of Bluefields ; and, in another direction, over the in- 
tervening hills, the mountain of Grand Vale rises to 
view, hazy and blue in the distance, but with the 
