CURACAO AGAIN. 145 



did not seem to bite at all. Great numbers of a fish not much 

 larger than a sardine are caught in cast nets. Some of them are 

 dried and sold thus, tied up in little bundles like cigars ( Tracliurops 

 ^P')' ^^ly good food fish are caught outside. Among them I 

 noticed " el capitan/' a fish much like our scup, about a pound and 

 a half in weight, and with red pectoral and ventral fins, and the 

 "king fish," eight or nine pounds in weight, a species of mack- 

 erel of a uniform dark color. Of the shellfish, I saw quantities of 

 sand fiddlers, a few crabs of larger size, deep mahogany red with 

 white claws, and some large lobsters, much like ours but without 

 the two big claws and with very long antennae. There are said to 

 be some rabbits on the island and a few snakes, but we saw none. 



The natives here have a peculiar way of hitching two donkeys to 

 a cart. One is put between the shafts, whilst the other has no other 

 harness than a loop around its neck, one end of which is tied to the 

 nearest shaft. Oxen are not yoked as with us, but a cross-bar is 

 lashed to their horns, the weight thus coming just on their fore- 

 heads. It was clear and hot. 



Friday, July 29, 1892. As the Venezuela was to leave in the 

 afternoon, we were busy all the morning, cleaning our guns and giv- 

 ing a final packing to our baggage. We finally went aboard about 

 two o'clock, but it was not until after six that Ave left the harbor 

 and headed for La Guayra. We had supper immediately after get- 

 ting outside, and when we came up on deck afterwards it had 

 grown dark, and the island of Curagao had faded from our view. 

 It was clear and hot. 



Saturday, July 30, 1892. When I Avent out on deck this morn- 

 ing we were within a few miles of La Guayra. The view was beau- 

 tiful. The town lay on a narrow strip of land at the foot of a 

 mountain that rose abruptly from the sea until its top was hidden 

 from us by clouds. A few houses above the town Avere actually 

 built in niches which had been excavated to receive them. To our 

 right we could trace by the cuttings the railroad winding its way up 

 to Caracas ; to our left lay the main portion of the toAvn, above which 



