206 
BLUEFIELDS. 
quarter, then on the other, alternately ; by the force 
of which the slender skiff shot rapidly out from the 
shadow of the shore into deep water beyond the 
reef. The clear water rippled off behind with a 
whispering sound, varied by the short quick plashing 
of the paddle ; but every thing else was noiseless and 
motionless. The sky scarcely showed any glow in 
the horizon, the land-breeze had gone to sleep, and 
the sea-breeze had not yet thought of awaking ; 
the woods on the slopes of Bluefields and Mount 
Edgecumbe looked black and indistinct, and were 
scarcely relieved from the huge mountain behind 
them ; while the whole was reflected, an unbroken 
mass of deep shadow, in the silver sea. 
Two or three specks began to appear on the sleep- 
ing surface, towards one of which the fisherman 
directed his course, and presently we were close to 
it. It was a billet of soft light wood, with a rope 
attached, which went down into the deep water ; it 
marked the position of the sunken pot. The old 
negro began to haul upon the rope, and presently 
drew to the surface his device for entrapping un- 
wary fishes. 
The Ash-pot was a four-sided box, about four feet 
square and one foot deep, divided by a partition into 
two compartments. It was made of strips of very 
tough wood, torn off, about an inch wide, and no 
thicker than card-board, interwoven much like the 
cane-bottom of a chair, through the interspaces of 
which the contents of the interior could be readily 
discerned. In each compartment an orifice of eight 
or nine inches wide was left, where the strips were in- 
