206 BLUEFIELDS. 



quarter, then on the other, alternately ; by the force 

 of which the slender skiff shot rapidly out from the 

 shadow of the shore into deep water beyond the 

 reef. The clear water rippled off behind with a 

 whispering sound, varied by the short quick plashing 

 of the paddle ; but every thing else was noiseless and 

 motionless. The sky scarcely showed any glow in 

 the horizon, the land-breeze had gone to sleep, and 

 the sea-breeze had not yet thought of awaking ; 

 the woods on the slopes of Bluefields and Mount 

 Edgecumbe looked black and indistinct, and were 

 scarcely relieved from the huge mountain behind 

 them ; while the whole was reflected, an unbroken 

 mass of deep shadow, in the silver sea. 



Two or three specks began to appear on the sleep- 

 ing surface, towards one of which the fisherman 

 directed his course, and presently we were close to 

 it. It was a billet of soft light wood, with a rope 

 attached, which went down into the deep water ; it 

 marked the position of the sunken pot. The old 

 negro began to haul upon the rope, and presently 

 drew to the surface his device for entrapping un- 

 wary fishes. 



The fish-pot was a four-sided box, about four feet 

 square and one foot deep, divided by a partition into 

 two compartments. It was made of strips of very 

 tough wood, torn off, about an inch wide, and no 

 thicker than card-board, interwoven much like the 

 cane-bottom of a chair, through the interspaces of 

 which the contents of the interior could be readily 

 discerned. In each compartment an orifice of eight 

 or nine inches wide was left, where the strips were in- 



