FUERTEVENTURA 7 



are still visible, and on the sea below us lights may be 

 seen dancing up and down, as the small fishing boats 

 ply their trade. 



We stopped for ten minutes or so at a wayside inn 

 at Matanza, a small village and well-known place of 

 call for carriages between Santa Cruz and Orotava. 

 Here there was some excellent .coffee to be had ; the 

 native coffee, by the way, is nearly always good in 

 Tenerife, but is mostly consumed on the island. I had 

 noticed on previous occasions that this inn seemed to be 

 to a certain extent the rendezvous of sportsmen, and on 

 the walls of the room into which I was shown were 

 hung pictures illustrative of the chase, one, I remember 

 quite well, representing a pheasant, a hare, and a green 

 woodpecker tied up together, apparently not a work of 

 art from Tenerife. 



The invisible line which separates dawn from day- 

 light generally seems to require some artificial aid to 

 one's better perception of it, for when we resumed our 

 journey, although we had not delayed more than about 

 ten minutes at the fonda, it was already broad daylight. 

 The various signs and sounds, too, were those of day, 

 and the women who passed us now and again with 

 clacking tongues were in decided contrast to the silent 

 individuals whom we had met but an hour ago. These 

 women carried large baskets filled with farm produce on 

 their heads, or balanced pitchers of water with great dex- 

 terity ; many of them had placed their boots on the top 

 of these baskets, for when the authorities have taken 

 the trouble to make such an admirable carriage road as 

 the one which extends for a great part of the way along 

 the northern side of Tenerife, it is not necessary to wear 



