CONCLUSION. 
495 
they walked, solemn priests in black robes and shovel- 
hats, the children, the men, the posadas (taverns), 
everything wore a character so novel, so nnlike any 
thing in our colonies, that I was greatly entertained. 
In an hour or two we were again afloat, and steam- 
ing away for St. Thomas, where the sun on his rising 
the next morning found us snugly anchored. It had 
again been raining hard, and the mist hung over the 
town and slopes behind ; yet the beauty of the town, 
rising from the sea on the sides of three conical hills, 
in the form of three pyramids of buildings, could not 
be concealed. I walked on a hill at the entrance of 
the harbour, covered with stunted bushes, and spent 
an hour or two entomologising. The insects were 
almost entirely different from those with which I had 
been familiar in Jamaica. 
On the 16th we left St. Thomas, arrived on the 
20th at the little isles of Bermuda, with their English- 
looking scenery and the clear transparent sea around 
their rocks, as still as the water of a Polynesian lagoon, 
as little answering as might be to the anticipations 
one might have formed of the “ still vexed Ber- 
moothes.” We found the steamer Clyde lying here, 
migrated from the Avon to her, and reached South- 
ampton on the 5th August, 1846. 
Here I take a respectful leave of my readers and 
of tropical natural history together. If I have suc- 
ceeded in imparting to the former a small portion of 
the delight, admiration, and enthusiasm, which invest 
in my own feelings the things I have essayed to pre- 
