and beautifully wooded. There are three excellent roads, which 
lead through most enchanting scenery. Large quantities of coffee, 
sugar and cocoa are grown on the island. The coffee plant is al¬ 
lowed to grow about five feet high and then trained out flat on 
poles. The whole protected from the fierce tropical sun by large 
trees of a very rapid growth. The health of Basse Terre is good, 
though all kinds of malarial fevers abound at Pointe a Pitre in 
Grande Terre. 
A few hours’ run from Basse Terre brought us to Roseau in 
Dominica, which is probably the loveliest of all these beautiful 
islands. The cliffs near the sea are chiefly composed of vast 
masses of conglomerate. In many places along the coast, beds of 
coral are found lying in the conglomerate rock at a height of sev¬ 
eral hundred feet above the sea. The island is high, Morne Dia- 
blotin reaching the height of 5,313 feet, while several others are 
over 4,000 feet high. Everywhere you find evidences of the sub¬ 
terranean fires, such as volcanic springs, boiling lakes, etc., around 
nearly all of which are large accumulations of sulphur. This is 
particularly the case at the southern extremity of the island, where 
there are several volcanic fissures. Near one of these springs, in 
the center of what was evidently an old crater nearly two miles in 
diameter, I saw a spot of white earth, about three feet square, out 
of which four pine apple plants were growing, and by sticking 
my cane down and withdrawing it, a jet of steam followed. 
The rainfall at Morne Bruce ( the military station) has reached 
as much as seventy-two inches in a year. Yet with all this rain 
and the heat, one cannot help being struck with the wonderful 
luxuriance of the vegetation, and, for a tropical climate, with the 
great variety of flowers. There are more than one hundred and 
fifty different kinds of useful woods on the island. Coffee and 
sugar were produced here, but a blight came on each—disease on 
the coffee, and competition from districts more favorably situated 
for the application of modern improvements has rendered the 
sugar cane culture non-paying in this very uneven island. Limes 
and cocoa are now the principal products. There can be few 
things more beautiful or fragrant than a lime orchard. The trees 
are filled with fruit and blossoms all the year round, so that they 
are at all times gathering limes, though principally in May and 
