t wheat and beans, but sugar-cane ten and twelve
feet high. And a noble grass it is, with its stems as thick as
one's wrist, tillering out below in bold curves over the well-hoed
dark soil, and its broad bright leaves falling and folding above in
curves as bold as those of the stems: handsome enough thus, but
more handsome still, I am told, when the 'arrow,' as the flower is
called, spreads over the cane-piece a purple haze, which flickers in
long shining waves before the breeze. One only fault it has; that,
from the luxuriance of its growth, no wind can pass through it; and
that therefore the heat of a cane-field trace is utterly stifling.
Here and there we passed a still uncultivated spot; a desolate reedy
swamp, with pools, and stunted alder-like trees, reminding us again
of the Deep Fens, while the tall chimneys of the sugar-works, and
the high woods beyond, completed the illusion. One might have been
looking over Holm Fen toward Caistor Hanglands; or over Deeping
toward the remnants of the ancient Bruneswald.

Soon, however, we had a broad hint that we were not in the Fens, but
in a Tropic island. A window in heaven above was suddenly opened;
out of it, without the warning cry of Gardyloo--well known in
Edinburgh of old--a bucket of warm water, happily clean, was emptied
on each of our heads; and the next moment all was bright again. A
thunder-shower, without a warning thunder-clap, was to me a new
phenomenon, which was repeated several times that day. The
suddenness and the heaviness of the tropic showers at this season is
as amusing as it is trying. The umbrella or the waterproof must be
always ready, or you will get wet through. And getting wet here is
a much more serious matter than in a temperate climate, where you
may ride or walk all day in wet clothes and take no harm; for the
rapid radiation, produced by the intense sunshine, causes a chill
which may beget, only too easily, fever and ague not to be as easily
shaken off.

The cause of these rapid and heavy showers is simple enough. The
trade-wind, at this season of the year, is saturated with steam from
the ocean which it has crossed; and the least disturbance in its
temperature, from ascending hot air or descending cold, precipitates
the steam in a sudden splash of water, out of a cloud, if there
happens to be one near; if not, out of the clear air. Therefore it
is that these showers, when they occur in the