A CUBAN FISHERMAN. 163 



sity has now some twelve hundred students, the 

 great majority of whom are in those departments 

 which lead toward wealth, or social or political pre- 

 ferment, as law, medicine, and pharmacy. Com- 

 paratively few pursue literary or philosophical 

 studies, and still fewer are interested in the bio- 

 logical sciences. In the department of botany 

 there are now but two students, and the number 

 in zoology is probably not much greater. 



Although Professor Poey is evidently held in 

 very high respect in the university, in which he 

 has long been dean of the faculty of science, I can- 

 not imagine that he ever received much help or 

 sympathy in his scientific work from that quarter, 

 or indeed from any other in Cuba. His friends 

 and countrymen are doubtless glad to be of assist- 

 ance to so amiable a gentleman as the Senor Don 

 Felipe, but they have very little intelligent sym- 

 pathy for the claims of science. The university 

 library contains but little which could be of help 

 in Professor Poey's zoological studies. He has 

 therefore been compelled to gather a private library 

 of ichthyology. This library has with time become 

 very rich and valuable, many of his co-workers in 

 the study of fishes, notably Dr. Bleeker, having 

 presented him with complete series of their pub- 

 lished works. Two of Poey's daughters who still 

 reside with him in Havana have been of much 

 help to him in the preparation of drawings and 

 manuscripts. 



The museum of the university occupies two little 

 rooms, — the one devoted chiefly to Cuban minerals ; 

 the other containing mostly mammals, birds, and 



