130 TRINIDAD. 



last, an immense quantity is taken in the Gulf during July ; they 

 are migratory, and disappear in two or three weeks. The zapa- 

 tero, salmon (Otolytkus), and cod-fish (Elacates), are sold 

 occasionally in our markets, as they keep but for a short time. 

 The dog-headed eel (Synbranclms) , though, in my opinion, 

 delicate eating, is rejected from the table, on account of its 

 resemblance to a snake. I confess, however, that the French 

 proverb " La sauce fait manger le poisson" is applicable to a 

 number of our fresh and salt-water fishes ; Madeira or Bordeaux 

 wine, for instance, is the best sauce for crapaud and gruper; 

 king-fish and snappers are served either boiled or stewed ; 

 the dories fried mainly, as also the mullet ; the lebranche roasted, 

 with the addition of lime-juice and Cayenne pepper. 



The variety of our fishes is very great, and yet fish of good 

 quality is rather scarce ; the principal reason is, the impossibility 

 of keeping it fresh for more than a few hours ; in fact, the 

 change produced in the quality of the fish is something remark- 

 able, and can be appreciated only by those who have had an 

 opportunity of procuring it just after its capture. The salmon 

 and mullets particularly do not keep long; those which stand 

 better are the king-fish, Spanish mackerel, sardes, snappers and 

 gruper, also the carangues. 



Crustacea. Crabs, cray-fish, shrimps, and lobsters, are com- 

 mon. Besides the sea-crabs, there are in the island two land or 

 fresh-water species, one about the size of a dollar, and of a red 

 colour ; it is to be met with only at the beginning of the wet 

 season, at which time it comes forth to breed ; it is not eaten, and 

 the Negroes are under an impression that any one eating it will 

 certainly " turn crazy." The other land species is as large as 

 the common crab, and of a dark brown colour : it is called the 

 " mountain-crab," from being found on the hills, also along the 

 banks, and even in the beds of rivers and brooks ; it is by some 

 much esteemed as an article of food. Among the sea-crabs two 

 kinds are eaten the blue, which burrows in low lands along the 

 sea-board, and the brown, which lives amidst the rocks. The blue 

 crabs are in such prodigious numbers in some places that the soil 

 is literally furrowed by them; in September they leave their 

 recesses, and betake themselves to the sea, there to deposit their 

 spawn. 



The island lobsters, cray-fishes, and shrimps, are much like 



