suitable for landing boats. As we stood near the beach the scene up the hill behind us was curious. The wide, grassgrown street is bounded by low houses on each side. Tied to the handles of the doors at intervals, mostly on the shady side, are camels, standing or kneeling, interspersed with donkeys, the latter always comic when in juxtaposition to the stately dromedaries.

Much did we wonder what the cargo could be. It was not great, but varied-goats, calabashes, pottery, hides, long wiry grass for corn-sieves, barrels, a few boxes, and some goods enclosed in palm mats. I was surprised at first to see the goats, but remembered that they are still stocking the land after seven years of famine.

one.

Our fonda is a curious, odd-shaped little house. The street door opens directly on a small yard; on the left is a room guiltless of windows, where we eat our meals, part of it being partitioned off for a shop. On the right a high wall encloses the yard from the street, the house being a corner Out of the yard rises a staircase, ending in a little wooden balcony, off which are two rooms. One of these is the sala, or drawing-room, the other an irregularly shaped room, the walls not running parallel, containing two small beds. Off these rooms are two others, one a bed-room and the other a writing-room, where the good man of the house, who is a tax-gatherer, does his business.

We had a pleasant walk in the cool of the evening along the shore, the ripple of the waves being the only disturbing sound. Two kinds of barrilla, Aizoon canariense and Aizoon hispanicum, and another plant, the ordinary ice-plant, we trod beneath our feet. The two barrillas formed the principal gofio during the past seven years. When the seeds are ready for pulling, they are placed in water, where they open; they are then dried and roasted, like other gofio. This is generally mixed with wheat or maize, as the nourishment from the seeds is very insufficient. Those who were so poor as to have been obliged to live on them entirely may be counted among the number who died of "insufficient nourishment."

The most remarkable feature of the principal street of Puerto Cabras is the plentiful growth there of a plant of

the tobacco genus, Nicotiana glauca. Between the rough cobble stones in the middle of the street, as well as under the shadow of the wall, it grew in quite a little forest, in defiance of all English ideas of street propriety. No other vegetation of any kind, sort, or description besides this near relative of the common tobacco enlivens the hot, glaring monotony of Puerto Cabras thoroughfares. Until about 1867-69-I carefully obtained the date the plant was unknown in the island. Then suddenly and almost simultaneously it appeared everywhere. As a peasant journeyed to a village at the other end of the island, he found it growing all along his route by the 1 path-side. The villagers would ask him had he observed the same new plant growing at his home, and he would invariably answer, “Yes, the same." And so it came to pass that the singularity of the plant and the suddenness of its Fuerteventura advent-where no trees are to be seen, and scarcely any plants above a few inches in height, except round the houses in well-watered spots-led to the curiosity of the natives being aroused and to a regular fire of questions among themselves concerning it. Each had seen the same plant in some other part of the island, and hence in a short time became established its present native appellation of mismo (same). The plant is a native of Buenos Aires, but it also grows on the neighbouring coast of Africa, whence birds or man may have brought it. In its native country it grows to a height of nine or ten feet. Here it is stunted, only attaining two or three feet of stem. The harder and more stony the ground, however, the better it seems to thrive. It is not a pretty plant. The stem is thin and straggling, seldom, if ever, growing straight. The leaves are about the size of those of a Portugal laurel, but not of similar consistency, being soft. They are light greyish-green in colour; the backs being whity-grey, like those of an aspen. The blossom is funnel-shaped, and yellow in colour. Perhaps the inhabitants may be led to manufacture a variety of tobacco from its leaves. If such a use for mismo be discovered, so much the better for povertystricken Fuerteventura.

CHAPTER XLII.

CASILLAS DEL ANGEL-ANTIGUA-BETANCURIA -GRANITE GORGE-PAJARA.

There are two classes of people to whom life seems one long holiday, the very rich and the very poor, one because they need do nothing, the other because they have nothing to do. But there are none who understand the art of doing nothing and living upon nothing better than the poor classes of Spain. Climate does one half, and temperament the rest.—WASHINGTON IRVING.

THE thermometer stood at 61° F. (16° C.) next day. It was quite cool and cloudy, as we struck upwards towards the interior, past the small cemetery, built in 1871, and crossed the Enrique Prieto barranco, where we noticed quantities of mismo growing. Our camellero, Quiterio Gonzales by name, was a small, broad-set man, with a short neck, dark hair, and grey eyes, who proved a very pleasant fellow, talking with such a clear pronunciation that it was easy to understand him. He asked us if we were going to our "island" after leaving his. He was quite right, certainly, in calling England an island, but somehow it is a fact of which we frequently and generally lose sight. Probably he had some vague idea it was about the size of Canaria or Tenerife. In any case, it seemed natural to him, as one islander speaking to another, to say," su isla" ("your island"), rather than "Inglaterra" (England).

We hoped we might have got a glimpse of Cape Juby, on the coast of Africa, from the higher parts of the island, but we were told it is invisible. Fuerteventura can be seen from Cape Juby, owing to its being much higher than the mainland, which is low and flat. We recrossed the little barranco, remarkable for nothing save its amount of mismo.

Our dromedary was called Moreno (brown), a favourite name. It is also the Spanish for "a man of colour," or a

negro. I asked the camellero if there were any Morenos (negroes) here. He said, “No, but many blacks. I am one"! The natives of these two islands are particularly smart and bright, though they may seem even more so to us by contrast with the Canarios, who are unpardonably stupid. It is amusing to hear the camel-drivers remonstrating with the camels—“Go on, or we shall be all day on the road”; “Get on, Moreno: we shall not arrive till night, and there is no moon"; "Mind your feet"; and various other expressions, uttered in a conciliatory or persuasive voice. The peculiar noises by which the animals are directed require to be heard to be understood. The usual urging-on sound is made by vibrating the tongue rapidly against the roof of the mouth whilst holding the breath. Another for the same purpose is that peculiar " cluck" like the drawing of a cork. The first of these sounds cut short just at the beginning of each vibration and repeated several times, like “Burr! burr! burr!" is used to tell the dromedary to go cautiously down a hill or bad bit of road. The dromedaries also make some very peculiar and disagreeable noises. One is a squeak, caused apparently by the grating of the teeth as the lower jaw is moved from left to right, which often goes on for half an hour, the squeak keeping time to the animal's stride. They have a curious power of, as it were, blowing up wind, which rumbles up and fills their tongues, puffing them out like bladders, while they hang six or eight inches out of the side of their mouths, like a dog's tongue. This noise they usually make upon catching sight of a comrade. It is wonderful how soon one dromedary will see another. Often have we scanned the horizon searching vainly for the animal that we knew, from the uncouth noises of ours, must be in sight.

We continued ascending over stony ground, and 500 feet above the sea reached a level plateau, crowned by a peaked mountain, Al Medio, the base spreading out and forming a Welsh hat. The solitudes were dedicated to crows, hoarser and lower of voice than those at home. Countless canary birds were singing their beautiful well-known song in the fresh, cool morning air. Our road, albeit a track, was fit to be a royal carriage drive, broad, level, and smooth.

A GROTESQUE RIG-OUT.

441

The mountains on this island run principally east and west, tablelands lying between them, on which the towns and villages are built. These chains overlap each other, making a journey down the centre of the island devious. Our road lay between two chains of hills, Al Medio being the terminating point at one side and the Montaña de Tao at the other. At our feet as our camel strode softly along was a brilliant carpet of purple, white, yellow, and orange flowers; patches of delicate creamy Marguerites, with golden centres, ravished us with their beauty; and the short grey-green herbage toned down the colouring, making it "one harmonious whole." In a low-banked river-bed we were surprised to see in this thirsty land water trickling along. The Cabra river, however, is, alas! amargo (bitter).

We began to meet peasants as we got further across the plateau towards some houses. One man, driving a donkey in front of him, had on light blue-checked trousers and a dark, short blue jacket of cloth, with a stand-up collar. We walked up the barranco below the sloping-roofed mud huts of Teguate. A solitary palm adorns the hamlet. There are three wells, the water of which, though slightly mineral, is used. We met another man in Cambridge blue trousers, short Eton jacket, the collar turned down, and waistcoat of the same material. All the jackets are of the same cut, and the skyblue trousers worn by the majority are evidently fashionable. Two round, roughly cemented pillars are on one bank of the river, a cross being erected on each.

The chain of mountains on the north side of the plain is called El Cuchillo de Tetir, the narrow, knifelike appearance of the ridge giving it its name. The most westerly point is called by some Montaña de Tao, by others the Fortaleza. The sides are much seamed, and the strata are in horizontal layers. The houses of Teguate straggle on alongside the barranco until near the larger and more important Casillas del Angel. This village is scarcely discernible a short distance off. The low, one-storied houses are built either entirely of mud, or else of loose stones plastered with mud, and, as the surrounding earth is used for the purpose, the distinction between the yellow ground and the yellow