. From palm to glacier; with an interlude: Brazil, Bermuda, and Alaska;. ss of gold,while the cool white shadow of the awning shieldsyou from too much beauty. If you turn your headlazily to the right, you have nothing but the tossingsplendor of illimitable sea; yet turned carelessly tothe left, you have a ribbon of calm blue waterbetween you and a curving shore of richest tropicalfoliage. Above and behind this rise hills of ex-quisite verdure, catching the light at every angle forevery degree of brightness and shadow, and abovethese you have the rugged grandeur of rock-ribbedmountains, scarred
. From palm to glacier; with an interlude: Brazil, Bermuda, and Alaska;. ss of gold,while the cool white shadow of the awning shieldsyou from too much beauty. If you turn your headlazily to the right, you have nothing but the tossingsplendor of illimitable sea; yet turned carelessly tothe left, you have a ribbon of calm blue waterbetween you and a curving shore of richest tropicalfoliage. Above and behind this rise hills of ex-quisite verdure, catching the light at every angle forevery degree of brightness and shadow, and abovethese you have the rugged grandeur of rock-ribbedmountains, scarred with gorges and chasms thateven the luxuriant and courageous, almost insolent,tropical growth of vine and undergrowth has notbeen able to surmount or soften. Mountains inMartinique! palms we expected, but mountains onthe little black pin-speck of our geographies! Thereis no element missing from the landscape : sea andshore, ocean and river, mountains and palms, loveli-ness and grandeur, sunshine, breeze, and shadow,soft verdure and rugged rock,—all is there. Every-. UNDER THE PALMS. 21 thing but man, and man is nowhere visible. NoBrooklyn Bridge spans any of the great spaces; notower is built loftily into that blue air; no ploughhas troubled those soft hill-sides; no ladder hasscaled those glorious mountains. A few littletowns nestle near the shore, proving that man istolerated here by Nature; but there is nothing toshow that he has been admitted to her friendship,and everything to show that he could never tameher. The vision is almost too much for imaginationalready touched with Southern languor; the fourweeks voyage to Rio would be worth taking, if onlyto secure those three hours off Martinique. But thegallant captain has afternoon tea served on deck,and as we sweep away again into the great spaces ofsea and sky, leaving the lovely island behind us, wegather in little knots to lament that half our fellow-passengers will leave us to-morrow at Barbadoes. We are fortunate aga
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbrazild, bookyear1892
