THE ISLAND OF CURACAO. 17 



streets for about an hour, and then came back. We crossed the 

 drawbridge through which we had passed earHer in the day. It is 

 a pontoon bridge, a number of whose centre spans are fastened 

 rigidly together by the road-bed, so that the whole swings open like 

 a gate. On the pontoon farthest from the pivot is a donkey-engine 

 such as is used on shipboard. To open the bridge, this engine takes 

 in a rope fastened to an anchor up-stream ; to close it, it hauls in 

 on a rope in the opposite direction. It is a toll-bridge, the toll 



DRAWBRIDGE ACROSS THE HARBOR AT CURA(^AO. 



(From Photograph by Soublctte.) 



being two coppers of Dutch money, about equivalent to one cent 

 in our currency. 



The town is very picturesque ; the houses and streets are remark- 

 ably neat looking. Though the island is so near the mainland, where 

 it rains frequently, here it rains but seldom ; sometimes two years 

 go by without rain. There are no springs or good wells, and for 

 drinking water cisterns are depended upon. There is, strange to 



