To the eye, as is usual in the Tropics, they look much lower.

One is inclined here to estimate hills at half, or less than half, their actual height; and that from causes simple enough.

Not only does the intense clearness of the atmosphere make the summits appear much nearer than in England; but the trees on the summit increase the deception.

The mind, from home association, supposes them to be of the same height as average English trees on a hill-top--say fifty feet--and estimates, rapidly and unconsciously, the height of the mountain by that standard.

The trees are actually nearer a hundred and fifty than fifty feet high; and the mountain is two or three times as big as it looks.
But it is not their height, nor the beauty of their outline, nor the size of the trunks which still linger on them here and there, which gives these islands their special charm.