[Illustration: CHURCH STREET, ST. GEORGE, GRENADA.]

Castries, drowsing under palm leaves at the edge of its curving
harbor,--perhaps an ancient crater,--seems more of a village than
a town: streets of low cottages and little tropic gardens.
It has a handsome half-breed population: the old French
colonial manners have been less changed here by English influence
than in Saint Kitt's and elsewhere;--the creole _patois_ is still
spoken, though the costumes have changed.... A more beautiful
situation could scarcely be imagined,--even in this tropic world.
In the massing of green heights about the little town are gaps
showing groves of palm beyond; but the peak summits catch the
clouds. Behind us the harbor mouth seems spanned by steel-blue
bars: these are lines of currents. Away, on either hand,
volcanic hills are billowing to vapory distance; and in their
nearer hollows are beautiful deepenings of color: ponded shades
of diaphanous blue or purplish tone.... I first remarked this
extraordinary coloring of shadows in Martinique, where it exists
to a degree that tempts one to believe the island has a special
atmosphere of its own.... A friend tells me the phenomenon is
probably due to inorganic substances floating in the air--each
substance in diffusion having its own index of refraction.
Substances so held in suspension by vapors would vary according
to the nature of soil in different islands, and might thus
produce special local effects of atmospheric tinting.

... We remain but half an hour at Castries; then steam along
the coast to take in freight at another port. Always the same
delicious color-effects as we proceed, with new and surprising