LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



more cleanly than our cities. One reason for this is that 

 they have no carriages, making the jackass answer every 

 purpose, and you frequently see boys in the streets pick- 

 ing up in baskets the dung after the jacks, which they 

 sell for manure, such is their poverty. Whitewash is 

 used here very profusely, both inside and out, and it is 

 this mostly which gives to the city its neat appearance. 

 The streets are well paved but without sidewalks, gener- 

 ally narrow and crooked. Thus you have Mahon. As 

 I said before, its sports are not numerous. Some of the 

 officers make a sport of the Monte's table, in other 

 words gambling table (of a peculiar kind), when some- 

 times they win, but almost universally ultimately lose. 

 Some are now losers of a hundred dollars, which slipped 

 from them in one night. Poor business! I never try it 

 myself. Each tavern is furnished with them, and the 

 character of the officers is the cause of it, for it is found 

 that a hotel without one is not frequented. The theatre 

 has been open once and I attended, but it was nothing 

 great, half circus, part dancing, once on stilts, and the 

 remainder a pantomime which was the most pleasing 

 part. The actors merely gesture, and thus make them- 

 selves understood and go through a singular play. Opera 

 and masquerades are amusements which some expect will 

 be open in the course of the winter. The death of the 

 king of Spain Ferdinand VII. has thus far hindered 

 them. The people are now rejoicing for the ascension 

 of the queen. 



" I am learning to play on the guitar, a fine instru- 

 ment it is. 



" But some foreign news I have heard which is of the 

 most important kind. Louis Philippe has been im- 

 prisoned. The people of France cry for a republic. 

 The army of the French has marched from the frontiers 

 of Spain to Paris." 



The tendency of Dana's mind is shown by a note in 

 which he mentions the pursuits of his leisure hours. 

 These are his words : 



During the summer, engaged aboard ship in some 

 crystallographic investigations founded on the data given 



28 



