58 
given population of 35,000, the natives follow a like primi- 
tive fish industry as is to be found elsewhere among their 
fellow-countrymen along the coast. 
It becomes here my duty to warn speculators against 
the Canary Quarantine Laws, which in their operation are 
very fitful. They say that, on one occasion, because 
cholera was in Egypt or in India, the authorities of the 
Islands deemed it prudent to enforce their sanitary precau- 
tions against their own fishing vessels, because they had 
been engaged on the West African banks. 
There is also a very good story told in connection with 
this subject, which must have got about also when some 
Asiatic epidemic was more heard of than usual. 
While the channel fleet of six ships lay once at Grand 
Canary, a mail steamer arrived from the West Coast of 
Africa. The Admiral of the Fleet caused her to be 
visited, with a view to securing a grey parrot. The master 
of the steamer sent back word to the effect that, while he 
was sorry he had no parrots for sale, yet, if the Admiral 
would accept, he would be happy to give him one. The 
latter was condescending, and caused to be sent the 
“dingy” for the parrot. As the steamer had not at the 
” 
time received “pratique,” the boat was taken under her 
bows, and the parrot in cage was lowered by a rope into 
the stern-sheets of the “dingy.” At the moment, which 
proved afterwards awkward, the local official who was 
keeping guard around the mail steamer appeared, and, on 
inquiry into the case, declared that if the parrot were taken 
to the flagship the squadron would be placed in quarantine, 
and if even the parrot were returned to the steamer, the 
result would be the same when the “dingy” got back to 
her station. 
The parrot was eventually taken alongside the flagship, 
