ST. JAGO, CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. 59 



high mountain of the island called San Antonio, 7,400 feet 

 in height, in search of the European plants which grow there. 



I had a very short sleep and landed at 3 a.m. I found two 

 horses ready at the landing-place but my guide was not there, 

 and it was a long time before I could make the men with 

 the horses, who spoke only Portuguese, understand what I 

 wanted. At last a negro, who was sleeping on the pier, agreed to 

 find the guide, John Antonio, for a shilling, and I sat down on 

 the pier wall to listen to the surf and watch the crabs (Grcqmus 

 strigosus) running about, for nearly an hour. 



The parapet of the jetty had a capping upon it projecting 

 some distance and with a rounded edge. I saw a crab running 

 on the jetty, and I thought I could catch it, but to my astonish- 

 ment it ran with readiness over the edge of the parapet, round 

 the projection and down the flat face of the wall, with all the 

 ease of a fly under similar circumstances. 



At last my guide, John Antonio, a negro who spoke English, 

 arrived. He was to have been at the rendezvous at 3 A.M., but 

 said he was too sleepy. We mounted and rode off inland ; 

 after about an hour's ride day began to break. As we ascended 

 successive terraces the hills became greener and greener, being 

 covered with a continuous carpet of seedling grass, and other 

 herbs, as yet only two or three inches in height. John said that 

 it would be a foot or eighteen inches high later on, and that then 

 the quails would abound and the galinis breed, so that the 

 breeding season of these birds appears here to occur in autumn, 

 determined by the rainy season. Numbers of the galinis are 

 taken when quite young, and their eggs are also sought after. 



The quantity of birds of prey in San Jago is remarkable. 

 We passed numerous large falcons at rest on dead trees and 

 several hawks, and an owl flew across the road just at daybreak. 

 I saw also two eagles in San Domingo Valley. Eavens and 

 crows are abundant. 



The valley of San Domingo, into which our road at length 

 led, is deep, with precipitous cliffs and steep mountains on either 

 side, rising from 1,000 to 2,500 feet above sea level. The valley 

 is broken here and there by lateral offsets and backed towards its 

 head by irregular mountain masses. The view up the valley is 



