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“...50 mins., Monos 1 hour 30 mins.,
Gasparee 1 hour 10 mins., and Chacachacare 2 hours 10 mins.
Full particulars regarding times of sailing, etc., can be obtained
at the Railway Station.
Motor-launches and boats can be hired at reasonable rates.
Communication with Tobago is maintained by the Govern-
ment s.s. Belize, a miniature liner whose itinerary will be found
on page 144. .
To those wishing to see the Orinoco River, opportunity is
afforded by the comfortable river boats of the Compania Anonima
di Navegafion fluvial y Costanesa de Venezuela, which proceed
every week to Ciudad Bolivar, whence smaller boats convey
such passengers as may desire to proceed farther, to the upper
reaches of the river. . 'v.
SPORTS. Lawn tennis is played on the courts of the
Tranquillity Club (near the Queen’s Park Hotel), and the St.
Clair Club, whose members are always glad to extend hospitality
to visitors suitably introduced. At the St. Clair Club bridge
and dancing can also be enjoyed. Cricket is popular....”
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“...Oldmixon as far back as 1708. The natives, he said,
tell all strangers “ a Jtrange Tale of a vajt monjtrous
Serpent, that had its Abode in the before-mentioned
Bottom (an inaccessible Bottom among the high
mountains). They affirm’d, there was in the Head of it a
very /parkling Stone, like a Carbuncle of ine/timable
Price ; that the Mon/ter commonly veil’d that rich
Jewel with a thin moving skin, like that of a Man’s
Eyelid, and when it went to drink or/ported it/elf in the
deep Bottom, it fully di/cover’d it, and the Rocks all
about receiv’d a wonderful Lu/tre from the Fire i/fuing
out of that precious Gem.”
There is a rude shelter by the side of the lake, where
ponies can be tied up while the visitor proceeds afoot to
the famous Rosalie View. Here there is one of the most
magnificent vistas in the West Indies. From a fore-
ground of tall tree-ferns, rubber trees, and a wealth of
tropical foliage, stretch eight or nine miles of densely
wooded valley and mountain, ending in the dim and blue...”
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“...is Dead-man’s Chest,
immortalised by R. L. Stevenson in ‘‘Treasure Island,"
though he never visited it:
Fifteen men on The Dead Man’s Chest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum !
This rock, when seen from a distance, appears a flat surface,
almost level with the surface of the water; but on a nearer
approach, it assumes a regular shape, which has been compared
by one of the Spanish Fathers who first visited the country, to
a table with a coffin lying upon it; whence it has its name, in
Spanish el Casa di Muerti, which means nothing more than a
coffin, but, literally translated, is the Dead-man’s chest, its
present English name.—Waller’s “Voyage in the West Indies,
1820.”
Describing the amenities of these islands in The West
India Committee Circular in 1921, Mr John Levo wrote :
One can imagine no better holiday for a fisherman than cruising
in a motor-boat between the islands, with a tent for shore of
nights, with food and conversation enriched from the day’s...”
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“...THE SPANISH MAIN 403
Port Limon. A railway runs from Port Limon to San José
and the Pacific coast. The stations on the line are as follows :
Limon Miles. Height Feet. II Peralta . Miles. • 54*2 Height Feet. 1055
Moin Junction 3-5 Turrialba . 62 5 2037
Zent Junction Matina 20 *4 21 *9 55 Tucumque Juan Vinas . 68-7 • 73*8 3286
Madre di Dios 28-7 Santiago . 78-1 3536
Indiana Junction 35-7 Paraiso . • 85-4 4392
Siquirres 36-7 196 Cartago . . 89-4 4760
La Junta . 38-6 187 El Alto . . 92 *2 5137
Florida 43*o Tres Rios . 96-0 4362
Las Lamas . 45*2 879 San José . 102*1 3868
SIGHTS. Some two hours after leaving Colon,
steamers coasting along the Spanish Main pass Porto
Bello, a former Spanish stronghold.
Porto Bello was peopled with the inhabitants of
Nombre de Dios in 1584, when that city was virtually
abandoned after being repeatedly raided by the Indians.
As the chief Atlantic entrepót of the trade of Peru it
attained a position of great wealth and affluence, and
was very strongly fortified...”
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