492 



The National Geographic Magazine 



events in their daily life. They observe 

 frequent holidays in connection with 

 church festivals, birthdays, etc., and de- 

 light in dancing and music, the latter 

 being barbaric and showing strong evi- 

 dence of African origin. They believe 

 that the moon has a great effect on the 

 planted seed, and sometimes one sees an 

 umbrella carried at night to ward off the 

 evil effects of moonlight. 



f-** CHARTING COCHINOS BAY 



A svstematic survey with plane-table 

 and alidade was made, with the purpose 

 of preparing a chart of Cochinos Bay. 

 All the preliminary work was done in a 

 sail-boat, which proved a very tedious 

 and uncertain method of working. Later, 

 a motor boat was used, without which it 

 would have been impossible to make sys- 

 tematic soundings. It was necessary to 

 traverse every part of the coast on foot, 

 and as the entire east coast is a rocky 

 ledge, worn by the elements into a 

 rough slag-like surface, called "diente de 

 perro," or dog's-tooth coral, sometimes 

 no more than a quarter mile could be 

 charted in a day's work. 



Three rivers enter the bay, besides 

 several small streams. The larger rivers 

 are in every case the mouths of under- 

 ground streams, which drain the swamps 

 and, breaking out near the coast, run the 

 last part of their course in open rivers, 

 called "caletas," which- are deep-water 

 inlets or coves. These are filled with salt 

 water, as the tide enters and even pene- 

 trates underground and makes the water 

 brackish more than a mile inland. Only 

 in the height of the rainy season, when 

 for several months the current has a ve- 

 locity of four or five miles an hour, does 

 the water in these "caletas" become par- 

 tially fresh. The largest is Caleta Ro- 

 sario, on the east coast of the bay. It is 

 half a mile long and from 150 to 400 feet 

 wide, with a minimum depth of over six 

 feet, thus providing a safe refuge in 

 stormy weather for small schooners. 



REMARKABLE DEPTH OF COCHINOS BAY 



As existing charts do not show the 

 depth of water in Cochinos Bay, con- 



siderable time was spent in gathering 

 sufficient data to make the work fairly 

 complete. A wooden reel with sounding 

 line was made and the first sounding 

 taken one-quarter mile west from Caleta 

 Rosario. The entire line, 900 feet in 

 length, was run out without reaching 

 bottom, and this surprising depth neces- 

 sitated making a stronger apparatus and 

 considerably reduced the number of 

 soundings finally taken. 



When it is remembered that all the 

 surrounding land for probably forty 

 miles in every direction is a level plain, 

 ten or fifteen feet above sea-level at most, 

 the great depths of this bay are remark- 

 able. At one point, about the middle of 

 the east shore, only one-third of a mile 

 from the land, a depth of 1,245 ^ eet was 

 discovered. No soundings were at- 

 tempted in the middle of the bay, as the 

 great depth of water resulted in a re- 

 sistance on the sounding apparatus that 

 made the work impracticable. From an 

 analysis of the soundings made, it seems 

 probable that the greatest depths will be 

 found to reach 2,500 or 3,000 feet. If 

 drained of water, Cochinos Bay would 

 appear as a deep and comparatively nar- 

 row valley, with canyon-like and fre- 

 quently precipitous walls on its eastern 

 side. 



About ten miles due south of the bay, 

 there is a small island, called Cayo 

 Piedra, with a lighthouse visible nine 

 miles. From this point northwesterly to 

 the west side of the bay there is a long 

 line of shoals, which serve to inclose the 

 bay from the effects of southwesterly 

 seas. The deep-water entrance between 

 these reefs and the east shore is 3^/2 

 miles wide, and only in times of south- 

 easterly gales do heavy seas sweep into 

 the bay ; but even then their force is rap- 

 idly dissipated, till at the upper parts 

 their influence is rarely felt. Great 

 depth of water and coral rocks make 

 poor anchorages, as a general rule ; but 

 with local knowledge of good ground or 

 by use of fixed anchors, ships can ride 

 out the severest gales in the upper part of 

 Cochinos Bay as safely as in a com- 

 pletely land-locked harbor. There are no 



