A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

The English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse (1810-88) travelled to Jamaica in 1844 and stayed for eighteen months to observe the diverse wildlife there. Upon his return he described his findings in a trilogy of books. The first two examined the island's birds – he has been hailed as the 'father of Jamaican ornithology' – but he used the present work, first published in 1851, to describe all the other forms of life on the island, from beetles to fruit trees.

Lamenting that natural history was too often presented as a 'science of dead things', Gosse made his investigations come alive in A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica by writing it in a diary form, discussing what he encountered as his journey progressed, and providing a number of illustrations. His lively and engaging style won him a wide audience, and A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica remains an important early example of popular natural history.

Contents

- Preface
- Incidents of the voyage
- Kingston and Port Royal
- Alligator pond
- Bluefields bay
- Bluefields
- Belmont beach
- Market day
- Bluefields mountain
- Urania sloanus
- Lizards
- Sea-urchins
- Bluefields river
- Ride to Content
- Insects
- Ride to Kilmarnock
- The Kepp
- Pinnock Shafton
- Bluefields Ridge
- The Venus lizard
- The grave-digger
- Inverary
- Mountain gardens
- Phoenix Park
- Birds and flowers
- The chigoe flea
- The smooth sheath-claw
- The pond turtle
- Curious fishes
- Fig-trees
- The ant-lion
- The Cotta wood
- The bamboo
- Periodical rain
- Fishes and fishing
- Anole lizards
- Fruit on male papaw
- The black snake
- Negro proper names
- A naturalist's work-room
- The brush-footed spider
- The nurse shark
- The mangrove
- A swarm of dragon-flies
- Drive to Montego bay
- Beauty of negro villages
- The two-headed snake
- The Naseberry bat
- The silk-cotton tree
- The red hairy-tailed bat
- Musquitoes
- The eyed pallette-tip
- The sand gootoo
- The monk bat
- The great-eared leaf bat
- Moonlight
- The Liguanea mountains
- The trunk turtle
- The Pedro seal
- The yellow boa
- The pardaline snake
- The owl-faced bat
- The alco
- The manatee
- Cetacea
- Nocturnal forest sounds
- Gregarious trees
- The grey snake
- The crested snake
- The spotted-chinned snake
- The wild hog
- The crocodile
- Land tortoises
- The agua toad
- Deer
- Wild goats
- The rabbit
- Rats
- Sugar-cane insects
- Curious spider
- Stingless bees
- Indian cony
- Orchideae
- Departure and return
- Appendix
- Index

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