so without an involuntary surprise. The first day we dined out, the entry com- 

 municated with the dining-room, and there was but just space enough for the ' 

 Chinese waiters to pass between the back of the chair and the wheel of the bedizened 

 coach, which, we heard afterwards, had a thousand dollars' worth of real silver 

 for its mountings. 



One of the novel sights to a stranger, is the mode of supplying corn-stalks 

 for horse feed from the rural districts to the town consumers. Hay, unless 

 imported, is out of the question; corn-stalks are substituted, and these are sup- 

 plied daily, in a fresh state, brought on the backs and sides of small horses, 

 with the same regularity as milk is distributed in our cities. All the approaches 

 to Havana as well as all its streets exhibit strings of horses in single file, those 

 in the rear tied to the tails of those in advance, and all of them literally thatched 

 over with green stalks, nothing being visible but the muzzled head and the 

 small feet. The arrieros come in from a distance of six, and even ten miles, and 

 proceed to serve their customers, dropping a half-dollar bundle at successive 

 houses, for the day's supply. The poor little horses carry enormous weights 

 in this way, and look, on a larger scale, like the insects which pack themselves 

 away in green leaves for winter quarters. As they stand patiently to be gradually 

 unloaded, it is amusing to see their quiet but vain attempts to snap at a branch 

 of the corn, with an expression which plainly says : " I want it badly, but know 

 I can't get it!" These arrieros come to town in the same style, with loads of 

 various produce, the horses always in this single file, just as they came in the days 

 of Don Quixote, and with most awkward baskets and panniers swung on the 

 horses' or mules' backs. Everything seemed to go in a pannier; a keg of mo- 

 lasses or a demijohn, is pushed into a pannier, and is carried in or out of town in 

 this most awkward way. The Palm leaves are worked into the sides and tops of 

 wagons, when these are employed for heavy goods like sugar hogsheads, and the 

 whole arrangements seem to speak of the middle ages. The horse requires a daily 

 bath in such a warm climate, and they are fastened heads to tails, and swim about 

 in shallow parts of the bay, in a circle ; happy the little Spanish boy when he can 

 throw himself on one of their backs, and get a ride and a swim at the same time. 



We were sitting one evening with a Spanish gentleman, in Havana, in a well- 

 lighted room, paved with marble tiles, when a scorpion ran across the floor very 

 near us ; a little boy put his shoe upon it, and crushed it at once. The circum- 

 stance was pronounced very unusual, and led to the assertion of several natives, 

 that the Cuban scorpion is, to most, harmless ; its sting inflicts about as much 

 injury, and of the same duration, as the sting of a bee. Both, however, afl'oct 

 different persons differently ; some more, and some less, Init neither are dangerous. 



We have alluded to the Royal Tacon Paseo, and as this drive and the Cathedral 

 furnish illustrations* for our present number, we may say of it that in its original 

 outlines it has great merit. The view represents the beginning just outside the 

 walls, where the arch in the wall opens an entrance to this rural drive. It is well 

 planted, and is statued with Carlos and Christinas in marble ; but these royal 

 effigies and other emblematical devices are mounted on stuccoed columns in a state 

 of dilapidation. The fountains represented seemed to be in decay, and were never 

 played, water being scarce. Altogether it presents a truly Spanish scene — a 

 combination of civilization and pretension, surrounded with meanness and con- 

 stant evidences of semi-barbaric neglect. 



* For several of our previous illustrations we have been indebted to the able pencil of 

 onr friend Ledyard Lincklaen, Esq., of Cazeiiovia, New York, who preceded us by a few weeks 

 In the December number these sketches of Cuba will be concluded, and a few remarks 

 Southern States will be commenced in our next volume. 



