A CUBAN FISHERMAN. 173 
sity has now some twelve hundred students, the 
great majority of whom are in those departments 
which lead toward wealth, or social or political pre- 
ferment, as law, medicine, and pharmacy. Com- 
paratively few pursue literary or philosophical 
studies, and still fewer are interested in the bio- 
logical sciences. In the department of botany 
there are now but two students, and the number 
in zodlogy is probably not much greater. 
Although Professor Poey is evidently held in 
very high respect in the university, in which he 
has long been dean of the faculty of science, I can- 
not imagine that he ever received much help or 
sympathy in his scientific work from that quarter, 
or indeed from any other in Cuba. His friends 
and countrymen are doubtless glad to be of assist- 
ance to so amiable a gentleman as the Sefior Don 
Felipe, but they have very little intelligent sym- 
pathy for the claims of science. The university 
library contains but little which could be of help 
in Professor Poey’s zodlogical studies. He has 
therefore been compelled to gather a private library 
of ichthyology. This library has with time become 
very rich and valuable, many of his co-workers in 
the study of fishes, notably Dr. Bleeker, having 
presented him with complete series of their pub- 
lished works. Two of Poey’s daughters who still 
reside with him in Havana have been of much 
help to him in the preparation of drawings and 
manuscripts. 
The museum of the university occupies two little 
rooms, —the one devoted chiefly to Cuban minerals ; 
the other containing mostly mammals, birds, and 
