XXV.


At Georgetown, steamers entering the river can lie close to the
wharf;--we can enter the Government warehouses without getting
wet. In fifteen minutes the shower ceases; and we leave the
warehouses to find ourselves in a broad, palm-bordered street
illuminated by the most prodigious day that yet shone upon our
voyage. The rain has cleared the air and dissolved the mists; and
the light is wondrous.

[Illustration: STREET IN GEORGETOWN, DEMERARA.]

My own memory of Demerara will always be a memory of enormous
light. The radiance has an indescribable dazzling force that
conveys the idea of electric fire;--the horizon blinds like a
motionless sheet of lightning; and you dare not look at the
zenith.... The brightest summer-day in the North is a gloaming to
this. Men walk only under umbrellas, or with their eyes down--
and the pavements, already dry, flare almost unbearably.

... Georgetown has an exotic aspect peculiar to itself,--
different from that of any West Indian city we have seen; and
this is chiefly due to the presence of palm-trees. For the
edifices, the plan, the general idea of the town, are modern; the
white streets, laid out very broad to the sweep of the sea-
breeze, and drained by canals running through their centres, with