Chap, ii.] ISLAND OF FOGO. 47 



the water. The negroes kept feeding the fish for some time to 

 give it confidence. A very strong piece of cord, with a hook 

 h'ke a sahnon gaff made fast to it, was then baited with a small 

 bit offish, just enough to cover the point of the hook, and a 

 stout bamboo was used as a rod. The cord was hitched tight 

 round one end of it, with about a foot of it left dangling with 

 the hook. One negro held the rod and the other the cord. 



The bait was held just touching the surface of the water. 

 The fish swam up directly and took it, the negro holding the 

 bamboo struck sharply and drove the big hook right through 

 the fish's upper jaw, and both men caught hold of the line and 

 pulled the fish straight out on to the rock. The negroes 

 evidently felt quite certain of their fish directly they saw it 

 swimming backwards and forwards in front of the rock. I was 

 astonished that so large a fish could be caught in so absurd a 

 manner. The negro holding the pole was not six feet from 

 the fish when it took the bait. 



The inhabitants of St. Vincent are mostly negroes from the 

 adjacent coast. In the town at Porto Grande there was an 

 albino negress, who was exhibited to visitors. 



Of birds the most conspicuous at St. Vincent are the sca- 

 venger vultures {Cathartes pcrnicopterus)-, the same which are 

 to be seen in great numbers about the native town at Aden, 

 and about all the towns of Egypt and northern Africa, and which 

 even follow caravans across the desert as gulls follow ships. 

 The birds were always to be seen about the waste land close to 

 the town where garbage was thrown, and were often to be seen 

 hunting over the refuse heaps in company with ravens and 

 crows. Some small finches were common in flocks on the 

 hills and some small hawks. 



At the periods of migration, quails are extremely abundant 

 on the island, as at St. Jago, and often afford good sport to 

 naval officers ; they are, however, mere birds of passage here, 

 and there were none at the time of our visit. Of sea birds I 

 saw a cormorant and a bird which looked in the distance like a 

 Merganser. Gulls and terns were absent entirely. 



I was told that the goats, which are wild on the island, have 

 all attained a red colour resembling that of the rocks, and that 

 they were hence very difticult to find and shoot ; I, however, 

 saw none myself. 



August 6th. — The island of Fogo was in sight ; it appeared 

 to our view as two truncated cones, showing out against the 

 sky above a bank of clouds. One of the cones, which is 9,000 

 feet in height, is much higher than the other, and has a tiny 

 secondary cone at one edge of its main terminal crater, just 

 like Pico in the Azores. The volcano is active, but had no 



