andly above us in the twilight. The
Pitons are two conical mountains rising straight out of the sea at the
southern end of St. Lucia, one of them 3,000 feet high, the other a few
feet lower, symmetrical in shape like sugar loaves, and so steep as to
be inaccessible to any one but a member of the Alpine Club. Tradition
says that four English seamen, belonging to the fleet, did once set out
to climb the loftier of the two. They were watched in their ascent
through a telescope. When halfway up one of them was seen to drop, while
three went on; a few hundred feet higher a second dropped, and
afterwards a third; one had almost reached the summit, when he fell
also. No account of what had befallen them ever reached their ship. They
were supposed to have been bitten by the fer de lance, the deadliest
snake in St. Lucia and perhaps in the world, who had resented and
punished their intrusion into regions where they had no business. Such
is the local legend, born probably out of the terror of a reptile which
is no legend at all, but a living and very active reality.

I had gone on deck on hearing where we were, and saw the twin grey peaks
high above me in the sky, the last stars glimmering over their tops and
the waves washing against the black precipices at their base. The night
had been rough, and a considerable sea was running, which changed,
however, to an absolute calm when we had passed the Pitons and were
under the lee of the island. I could then observe the peculiar blue of
the water which I was told that I should find at St. Lucia and Dominica.
I have seen the sea of very beautiful colours in several parts of the
world, but I never saw any which equalled this. I do not know the cause.
The depth is very great even close to the shore. The islands are merely
volcanic mountains with sides extremely steep. The coral insect has made
anchorages in the bays and inlets; elsewhere you are out of soundings
almost immediately. As to St. Lucia itself, if I had not seen Grenada,
if I had not known what I was about to see in Dominica, I should have
thought it the most exquisite place which nature had ever made, so
perfect were the forms of the forest-clothed hills, the glens dividing
them and the high mountain ranges in the interior still draped in the
white mist of morning. Here and there along the shore there were bright
green spots which meant cane fields. Sugar cane in these countries is
always called for brevity _cane_.

Here, as