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Page 59
In respect of climate and vegetation, there are three Jamaicas--Jamaica
of the plains, Jamaica of the uplands, and Jamaica of the high
mountains. The highest summit of the mountain region, is below the line
at which snow is ever formed in this latitude, and it is disputed
whether an evanescent hoarfrost even is sometimes seen upon it. As high
as four and five thousand feet there are residences, which, however,
purchase freedom from the lowland heats at the expense of being a large
part of the time enveloped in chilling fogs. Here the properly tropical
productions cease to thrive, and melancholy caricatures of northern
vegetables and fruits take their place. You see in the Kingston market
diminutive and watery potatoes and apples, that have come down from the
clouds, and on St. Catherine's Peak I once picked a few strawberries,
which had about as much savor as so many chips. The noble forest trees
of the lower mountains, as you go up, give way to an exuberant but
spongy growth of tree-ferns and bushes. Great herds of wild swine,
descended from those introduced by the Spaniards, roam these secluded
thickets, and once furnished subsistence to the runaway negroes who,
under the name of Maroons, for several generations annoyed and terrified
the island.
In these high mountains the sense of deep solitude is at once heightened
and softened by the flute-like notes of the solitaire. I shall never
forget the impression produced by first hearing this. It was on the top
of St. Catherine's Peak, fifty-two hundred feet above the sea, in the
early morning, when the mountain solitude seemed most profound, that my
companion and I heard from the adjacent woods its mysterious note. It
was a soft and clear tone, somewhat prolonged, and ending in a
modulation which imparted to it an indescribable effect, as if of
supernal melancholy. It seemed almost as if some mild angel were
lingering pensively upon the mountain tops, before pursuing his downward
flight among the unhappy sons of men.
The uplands of the island, from 800 to 1,500 feet above the sea, are a
cheerful, sunny region, in which the tropical heat is tempered by
almost constant refreshing breezes, and, in the eastern part at least,
by abundant showers. Some of the western parishes not unfrequently
suffer terribly from drought. There are two or three which have not even
a spring, depending wholly upon rain water collected in tanks. These
sometimes become dry, causing unutterable distress both to man and
beast. We hear even sometimes of poor people starving during these
seasons of drought. But our more favored region in the east scarcely
knows dearth. Our mighty mountain neighbors seldom permitted us even to
fear it, and were more apt to send us a deluge than a drought.
In the uplands our winter temperature was commonly about 75� in the
shade at noon, and the summer temperature about ten degrees higher. The
nights are almost always agreeably cool, and frequent showers and
breezes allay the sultriness of the days. I never saw the thermometer
above 90� in the shade, and seldom below 65�. It once fell to 54�, to
the lamentable discomfort of our feelings and fingers. Of course, where
the sun for months is nearly vertical, and twice in the summer actually
so, the heat of his direct beams is intense. But those careful
precautions of avoiding travelling in the middle of the day, on which
some lay such stress, we never concerned ourselves with in Jamaica, and
I could not discover that we were ever the worse for it. An umbrella was
enough to stand between us and mischief.
On the whole, it may safely be said that there is no climate more like
that which we imagine of Eden than that of the highland region of
Jamaica during a large part of the year. It is true that after a while
northern constitutions begin to miss the stimulus of occasional cold.
But for a few years nothing could be more delightful. The chief drawback
is that at uncertain cycles there come incessant deluges of rain for
months together, making it dreary and uncomfortable both in doors and
out. Years will sometimes pass before there is any excessive amount of
these, and then sometimes for years together they will prevail to a most
disagreeable extent. They break up the mountain roads and swell the
mountain streams to such a degree as to render travelling almost
impossible, and in a country where your friends are few, you do not like
to be kept back from seeing them by the imminent risk of finding no road
at all on the side of a hill where at best there is barely room enough
between the bank and the gully for one horse to pass another, or of
finding yourself between two turns of a stream, with a sudden shower
making it impossible for you to get either forward or back. But during
my residence I had just enough of these adventures to give a pleasant
zest to life. And after a tremendous rain of hours, when the sun
reappeared, and the banks of fleecy cloud were once more seen floating
tranquilly in heaven, and the streams ran again crystal clear, and the
hills smiled again in all the glory of their brilliant green, and the
air had again its wonted temper, at once balmy and elastic, it was
enough to make amends for all previous discomfort.
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