pen to get to the press and taste this juice, it in stantly dies. After this the cassada is laid in the open air, that the heat of the sun may exhale what poisonous particles the press could not squeeze out; and, being thus dried it is sifted through a sieve, made into thin cakes, and baked upon a broad iron kept entirely for that purpose. Our author was an admirer of this bread, and assures us it made excellent puddings.

The Bermuda islands produce some fine fruits, especially oranges, which are reckoned very delicious, and used formerly to be brought into Europe. The cedars that grow here are said to excel in many respects those of other parts of America, particularly in the fragrancy, durableness, beauty, and hardness of their wood; and here is such plenty of them, that they are used in building sloops, brigantines, and other vessels, as well as in the churches and some of the houses and it is to be observed, that ships built at Bermudas are reckoned as good as any throughout the West Indies.The palmetto, or wild palm, is also very useful, the wood being serviceable for building or fuel, and the leaves, which are eight or ten feet long, making a good covering for the houses.

The woods of Bermudas afford several medicinal vegetables, and among the rest one that bears a berry of a styptic quality, used by the English to cure those fluxes with which they are commonly alicted by eating too frequently of the palmberry or other delicious fruits. But there are two plants particularly remarkable, the one for its use, the other for its noxious quality. The first is the redwood, so called from its fine tincture, especially that of its berry, from whence proceed little worms, which afterwards become flies, some of them larger

than the cochineal fly, and said to exceed that insect in their medicinal virtue. The other is a weed which grows in the manner of English ivy, and (according to the account of a gentleman who had resided a long time at Bermudas,) it is of se poisonous and subtil a nature, as to affect a person passing close by it, in such a manner as to peel the skin off his face. However, it appears from the same gentleman's account, that it does not afflict all constitutions alike; for he asserts that he has chewed it in his mouth without feeling any unpleasant effect.

Tobago, besides producing the different kinds of wood found in the other West India islands, bears both the true nutmeg and the cinnamon-tree, with that which produces gum-copal. It is said also to produce five different kinds of pepper, with Indian and Guinea corn without culture. The figs that grow here are as good as those of Spain and Portugal. The pine-apple, the prickleapple, oranges, lemons, and limes, are found here in plenty; and excellent marmalade is made of the guavas. Here are also the finest plantanes, tamarinds, grapes, custard-apples, mammee-apples, papaw-apples, cocoa-nuts, musk, and water. melons.

The sides of the hills in Dominica are said to. bear the finest trees in the world; indeed it is es-> teemed one of the best of the Caribbee islands on account of its fruitful valleys, extensive plains, and fine rivulets. It produces among other fruit, the finest figs, and in general its produce is much the same as that of the other Caribbee islands,

The Granadilloes all produce very fine timber, as well as fruit-trees; particularly the latin-tree, which has a tall trunk, and instead of boughs bears o

leaves like fans, with long stalks, which being tied together, serve to cover the roofs of houses.

Amongst the vegetables of Guadalope, Father Labat found the copau-tree, famous for its healing balsam or oil, which he says he had sought for in vain throughout all the other French islands. This tree grows to the height of about twenty feet, having a leaf like that of an orange-tree, only somewhat longer and more pointed, and of an aromatic smell; as is also its bark when rubbed between the fingers. The balsam is obtained by making incisions in the bark of the tree, and is recommended by the abovementioned author as a specific for almost all maladies, both internal and external. Here Labat likewise found the milkshrub, whose leaf resembles that of the laurel, only it is larger, thicker, and softer; and its fibres, when pressed, yield a liquor just like milk both in colour and consistence. It bears flowers much resembling those of jessamine, being white, and. containing in the middle a little oval bud, which encloses two small black seeds, from whence the plant is propagated. Its bark is of a pale green without,, and white within, and its pith is like that of elder.-In this island there is also a tree called corbary, which bears fruit in a shell containing a pulp of a saffron colour, and yields a transparent gum, which, when hardened by the sun, is, used among the native Caribbees for bracelets and other ornaments.

ANIMALS.

Few colonies are so well stored with cattle as that of Jamaica, The horses, asses, and mules are

cheap, the cows and oxen large, and there would be much greater numbers of black cattle, but that the English are more attentive to planting than grazing, which has so lessened their stock of cattle, that they are supplied with flesh from the northern colonies, and some of the neighbouring islands. Their sheep are generally large and fat, and the flesh good; but the wool being long and hairy, is good for nothing. Goats they have in abundance, and hogs, whose flesh is very good; but they have no deer nor hares. They have all sorts of fowl, both tame and wild; and more parrots than in any of the other islands. Pigeons, snipes, turkeys, geese, ducks, &c. are very common in Jamaica; and they have the pelican, a description of which we have formerly given from Sir George Wheeler. This bird lives upon small fish it picks out of the sea, and roosts at night on high rocks, sitting with its head towards the wind. It has a very long neck, covered with hair instead of feathers on the upper part, and below it has two membranous bags, or ventricles, stretching to the extremimity of its under bill, wherein it reserves its prey, when gorged with eating, or what is intended as food for its young. It appears slow and heavy in flight, but has a piercing eye to discern the little fry on which it subsists, and on which it falls down from a considerable height in the air, and catches them either on the surface of the water or by diving. The flesh of it has a fishy taste, which it looses by being covered two or three hours with earth.

The mountains of Jamaica breed numberless adders and other noxious animals, as the fens and marshes do the guana and galliwasp; but these last are not venomous. Of all the insects produced

in that island there is none so mischievous as the ciron or chegoe, which eats into the flesh of the negroes, sometimes making their toes bare to the very bone.

Here also are a sort of flies, called fire-flies, on account of their contracting and expanding their light as they fly. In the day-time they look green, but glow and shine in the night, and do so even some days after they are dead. By a few of them, it is said, one may distinctly read the smallest print, provided they are laid close to the book, and moved from line to line.

The island of Juan Fernandes formerly abounded with goats; but their number is greatly diminished, for the Spaniards, being informed of the advantages, which the buccaneers and privateers derived from the goats flesh, with which they were here furnished, endeavoured to deprive their enemies of this relief, by setting on shore a number of large dogs, which have increased so fast, that they have destroyed all the goats in the accessible part of the country, only a few remaining among the crags and precipices, where the dogs cannot follow them. These are divided into separate herds, which inhabit distinct fastnesses, and never mingle with each other. Our author mentions an extraordinary dispute between a herd of these animals, and a number of dogs. Some men, going in, a boat into the castern bay, perceived the dogs running very eagerly; and, being willing to discover what game they were pursuing, they lay upon their oars to view them, and at last saw them take to a hill, where looking a little farther they observed, upon the ridge of it, a herd of goats that seemed drawn up for their reception. There was a very narrow pass skirted on each side by preci