290 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



them for the market. They can be tamed, and kept on 

 all kinds of roots, and bread and sugar. Of their 

 manner of life in the wild state I could learn nothing 

 precise ; nor whether in this region as in North 

 America they spend a part of the year asleep. I should 

 hardly expect this in this climate, where there is never 

 any lack of food and there is no compulsion from 

 severe weather. 



Cattle-breeding here is restricted merely to cows and 

 goats, kept for their milk, and a few sheep and swine. 

 Want of proper pasturage, and lack of water also, 

 (although there are dug wells and there might be more) 

 stand in the way of the cattle industry, a matter of lit- 

 tle concern, since slaughtered cattle are often brought 

 in from North America. From the competition brought 

 about by the sailors during the war, goats are sold 

 here at 20, 30, to 40 piastres. Of the hogs raised here 

 some have run off into the woods and multiply there; 

 these animals also, by chance or by means of wrecked 

 ships, have reached several of the islands as yet un- 

 settled, and lapsing into the wild there, are become 

 distinct from the tame sort, both in the color of their 

 flesh and its taste. 



Besides numbers of domestic house-fowls of all 

 sorts, there are several kinds of wild fowl which serve 

 in part for food ; wild geese and ducks, among others 

 the Bahama Duck (Anas bahamensis L.), the North 

 American Blue wing'd Tail and the whistling Duck. 

 The Booby (Pelecanns Snla L.), was it of a little 

 better taste would not be found so numerously. These 

 frequent some of the smaller islands in flocks of hun- 

 dreds, and build their nests close together of sand and 

 dried sea-plants. Their eggs are eaten, and are dili- 



