126 HISTORY OF THE [book iii. 
be fertile. Several of the mountains contain unex¬ 
tinguished volcanoes, which frequently discharge 
vast quantities of burning sulphur. From these 
mountains also issue springs of hot water, some of 
which are supposed to possess great virtue in the 
case of tropical disorders. In some places the wa¬ 
ter is said to be hot enough to coagulate an egg.* 
Dominica is well watered, there being up¬ 
wards of thirty fine rivers in the island, besides a 
great number of rivulets. The soil, in most of 
O 
the interior country, is a light, brown coloured 
mould, and appears to have been washed from the 
mountains. Towards the sea-coast and in many of 
the vallies, it is a deep, black, and rich native 
earth, and seems well adapted to the cultivation of 
all the articles of West Indian produce. The under 
stratum is in some parts a yellow or brick clay, in 
others a stiff terrace, but the land is in most places 
very stony. 
I am afraid, however, that the quantity of fer¬ 
tile soil bears but a very small proportion to the 
whole; there not being more than fifty sugar plan¬ 
tations at present in cultivation, and it is computed, 
# In the woods of Dominica are innumerable swarms of bees, which 
lodge in the trees, and produce great quantities of wax and ho¬ 
ney, both of which are equal in goodness to any in Europe. It is 
precisely the same species of bee as in Europe, and must have been 
transported thither : the native bee of the West Indies being a small¬ 
er species, unprovided with stings, and very different in its manners 
from the European. 
