fanciful hues. Some
beautiful specimens of white corals are found here, but they are not a
characteristic of the coast.

On that portion bordering the Old Bahama Channel, and also opposite
the Isle of Pines, which Columbus named Evangelista,--on this south
shore, large numbers of turtles are taken annually, which produce the
best quality of tortoise-shell. It is strange that the habits of these
creatures down here in the Caribbean Sea should so closely resemble
those of the tiny tortoises described by Thoreau as frequenting Walden
Pond. The female turtle digs the hole in which to deposit her eggs on
the sandy beach, just above the margin of high tide, generally
choosing a moonlight night for the purpose. The hole is often so large
that the turtle will require an hour of industrious labor to dig it to
her entire satisfaction. Observing the strictest silence, the
turtle-hunter steals upon the animal, and with a single motion turns
it upon its back, rendering it utterly helpless, after which it can be
secured at will. Thousands are annually caught in this manner.

It is a curious fact worth recalling to memory that four hundred
years ago, when Columbus first landed upon the island, he found that
the aborigines kept turtle corrals near the beach, amply supplied with
these animals. From them they procured eggs, and also furnished
themselves with the only meat which it was possible to obtain, if we
except that of the little "voiceless dog" which they hunted, and such
birds as they could snare. Probably as many turtles were taken by
those Carib Indians in 1492 as are caught by the fishermen this year
of our Lord, in the same waters, showing how inexhaustible is the
supply of Neptune's kingdom. Modern epicures may not therefore claim
any distinction as to the priority of discovery touching turtle soup
and turtle steaks, both of which were certainly indulged in by the
Caribs in Columbus' time, and probably they were in vogue many
centuries previous.

One neither departs from nor approaches the Cuban shore without
crossing that marvelous ocean river, the Gulf Stream, with banks and
bottom of cold water, while its body and surface are warm. Its color,
in the region of the gulf where it seems to have its rise, is indigo
blue, so distinct that the eye can follow its line of demarkation
where it joins the common waters of the sea in their prairie-green.
Its surface temperature on the coast of the United States is from 75 deg.
to