OHACACHACAREO. WHALE-FISHING. 293 



grows in luxuriance, and is used by the residents for thatching 

 their cottages. Alum has been found both there and at Huevos. 

 On the south side of Chacachacareo is a large pond of salt-water, 

 which might be advantageously made to yield a home supply of salt. 

 A small catholic chapel has been erected by the inhabitants in a 

 commanding position, and a few houses scattered around form a 

 kind of hamlet. There is at Chacachacareo a whaling establish- 

 ment, making together four on the Bocas islands. The species of 

 whale caught in the gulf is a balaenoptera (razor-back). Whales 

 arrive in December, but they are then so wild that they cannot 

 be easily approached : the whaling season is from February to 

 May, at which time the balaenoptera leaves these shores for other 

 climates. In taking the whale, peculiar boats only are used, 

 so that the whalers do not venture beyond the placid waters of the 

 gulf. The method followed here is the same as that pursued on 

 the ocean ; but, no large vessels being engaged in the pursuit, 

 when the animal has been killed it is towed to the establishment 

 by the boats : this is a very tedious mode of procedure, and should 

 the wind and tide be against the boatmen, it often occupies 

 twenty-four hours. The animal is brought as near the shore as 

 possible, the blubber cut into long slices and carried to the boilers ; 

 even this, however, is not accomplished without much trouble. 

 Very often immense troops of sharks attack the carcase of the whale, 

 and devour part of it before it can be removed to the establishment; 

 but they particularly swarm around when the operation of slicing 

 is commenced, from 1,500 to 3,000 sharks sometimes collecting 

 in an incredibly short time, so that some of the men are then em- 

 ployed in killing them with harpoons and hatchets. Great waste 

 often takes place from imperfect resources ; one-fourth of the 

 available parts of the animal being sometimes left on the spot. 

 The number of whales caught annually is from twenty-five to 

 thirty ; quantity of oil, about 20,000 gallons. Sometimes whales 

 come in accompanied by their young, and as the female is very 

 fond of its offspring, the whaler aims at wounding the calf with the 

 least possible injury. The mother, in this case, never abandons 

 her young, but continues swimming around, so as to be easily ap- 

 proached and harpooned. 



Huevos is uninhabited, on account of the immense number 

 of rats which have made it their abode. On the north side of the 

 islet is a cave swarming with guacharos. 



