CUBAgAO AGAIN. 147 



was seen the roof of the bull-fig-hting arena, and higher up on the 

 mountain-side a Uttle pill-box of a fort. There was a Venezuelan 

 man-of-war in the harbor, a dirty little steamer about the size of the 

 average steam yacht. We tied up alongside a strong-looking pier 

 and breakwater of concrete and iron, out upon which ran the tracks 

 of the railroad, a narrow-gauge road with English cars and locomo- 

 tives, the passenger coaches looking like a second-hand summer 

 street car. Shortly after we had tied up, Cabell and I took a short 

 walk up into the town. We found it indescribably filthy and bad 

 smelling, the stores dirty, narrow, dark, and overhung- with cob- 

 webs. There was an air of general stagnation of business, due no 

 doubt to the revolution then in progress. There is a fine stream 

 tumbling down the mountain through the centre of the town. It is 

 walled in on either side. We found the heat so oppressive that we 

 soon returned to the ship. On the wharf we were much interested 

 in seeing the fishermen come in. They go out to sea in little cockle- 

 shell dug-outs of a different design from those used at Barranquilla. 

 These are skiff -shaped, ride very high in the water with both ends 

 clear, and are painted. The fishermen squat on the bottom in the 

 middle of the boat, and, using a single-bladed paddle which they 

 change from side to side about every third stroke, they skim swiftly 

 over the water. They brought in some fine fish, some that I rec- 

 ognized, others that I did not. Among them were several fine red 

 snappers and Spanish mackerel ; some fish of the mackerel species, 

 about a yard long, with heavy teeth and of a uniform dark color 

 [Cero s]).); some perch-like fish with yellow longitudinal stripes 

 (PomacentriLS s^J.) ; a small brown fish very like our chogset, but 

 with circular dots of sky-blue all over its body {Ilanmilon sp.) ; a 

 few small flat fish, and an eel, broad and thin, brown with light 

 yellow dots, a wide opening mouth with vicious-looking teeth 

 (gen. Murcena). The water was marvelously clear, and looking over 

 from the pier Ave saw some of the most beautiful fish that I have 

 ever seen. There were some little fish marked with broad black 

 and yellow bars like a sheepshead, some fool-fish {Alutera s^j.), and 



