AN ISLAND EXISTENCE 95 



wreckage I had salvaged a quarter ounce bottle of flash powder 

 which I had brought for photographic use. A quarter ounce is 

 a lot of flash powder, for it is a powerful explosive. I fitted it 

 with an electric photo fuse and connected the fuse with a flash- 

 light battery. I planted the powder in the ground in the middle 

 of the clearing. 



At eight o'clock, as usual, the yard was full of cattle. I 

 touched the wires. There was a blinding flash of light followed 

 by a thunderous boom and a hail of rocks and small boulders. 

 A few came hurtling through the roof and bounced on the 

 floor. 



To have gone out in the yard in the next few seconds would 

 have been suicide. Cows hurtled against cows and donkeys 

 plunged over the lot. In a wild, screaming frantic horde they 

 burst through a stone fence, knocking it asunder and went 

 bounding into the bushes. After that evening I was never dis- 

 turbed by another animal. 



But the most amazing feature of my dwelling was the utter 

 tameness of the birds. They came in the windows, perched on 

 the table, hopped across the floor and bounced out again. The 

 yard was the favorite resorting place of a half dozen ground 

 doves not much bigger than good sized sparrows. These were 

 so tame they allowed me to approach within a few inches. They 

 belonged to a subspecies noteworthy for the paleness of its 

 coloration and the excessive length of its scientific name which 

 contained no less than twenty-nine letters. Oddly enough, the 

 subspecies has been recorded from only two islands, Inagua 

 and distant Mona w^hich hes between Hispaniola and Porto 

 Rico more than three hundred miles away. Yet on Mariguana 

 only a short day's sail to the north is another variety of the same 

 species. I captured one of these delicate brown doves and 

 placed it in a cage. But it was so restless, flying against the bars, 

 pacing ceaselessly up and down, never resting, ignoring the 



