370 humboldt's cuba. 



of birds of the pelican family, for the purpose of 

 fishing on the shores, placing rings around their 

 necks to prevent their swallowing the prize and thus 

 fishing only for themselves. In the lower grades of 

 civilization, all the sagacity of man is displayed in 

 the artifices of the chase and fishery. Nations that 

 probably have never communicated with each other, 

 present the most palpable analogies in the means they 

 adopt to subdue the animal creation. 



Three days passed before we could emerge from 

 the labyrinth of the Jar dines and Jardinillos. We 

 were every night at anchor, and during the day 

 visited those islets or cays, where we could most 

 easily land. As we advanced toward the east, the 

 sea become less smooth, and we began to recognize 

 the shallows by the milky color of the water. Upon 

 the margin of a kind of whirlpool which exists 

 between Cay Flamenco and Cay de Piedras, we 

 found that the temperature of the sea at the surface, 

 suddenly increased from 23°.5 to 25°.8 C. (74°.3 to 

 78°.4 F.) 



The geognostic constitution of the small islands 

 that surround the Isle of Pines was the more inte- 

 resting tb me, from the fact that I was slow to believe 

 the accounts of the coral structures of Polynesia, 

 that were said to rise from the profound depths of 

 the ocean to the surface of the water ; for it seemed to 



