l60 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



"A 



A CUBAN FISHERMAN. 



H, but you must see Don Felipe, — he knows 

 all about fishes ! " is the first advice which 

 the naturalist receives when he begins to make col- 

 lections of fishes in the markets of Havana. The 

 writer once had occasion to make such a collec- 

 tion, and he soon found that among fishermen 

 and fishmongers the phrase *' amigo de Don 

 Felipe " was ever a passport to honest dealing and 

 to a real desire to aid him in his work. For every 

 fisherman in Havana knows Don Felipe, and 

 looks upon him as a personal friend. Each one 

 regards the fame which Don Felipe's studies of the 

 fishes is vaguely understood to have brought him 

 in that little-known world outside of Havana as in 

 some sort reflected on himself The writer was 

 told, by a dealer in the Pescaderia Grande, that 

 for twenty years Don Felipe Poey was there in the 

 markets every day, when at noon the fishes came 

 in from the boats, and that he knew more about the 

 fishes of Cuba than even the fishermen themselves. 

 And now that Don Felipe no longer visits the 

 markets, he is not forgotten there, and many a 

 rare specimen still finds its way from the Pesca- 

 deria to Don Felipe's study in the Calle San 

 Nicolas. 



