into the
boat. _Hay mas!_--there's more!--he exclaims, takes a long respiration,
and again sinks--this time reversing his heels, after getting under
water. Two or three feats of the kind, and he gives place to a fresh
_buzo_. The depth ranged from twenty to thirty-five feet, and they
remained below about a minute.

One would naturally suppose that the oldest oysters, like heads of
families, out of the sea would adorn themselves with the costliest
jewels, but the system is quite the reverse. The venerable shells are
contented with little, valueless seeds, and the princely peas of pearls
are distributed among the juveniles. This is invariably the case, and
the rarest gems are always found in the smallest and youngest oysters;
nor are they worn, as with mortals, in the ears, for we ever discovered
them, after much scrutiny, carefully secreted in their beards!

After shelling and fishing until the sea breeze agitated the inlet, and
put an end to the morning's sport, we disembarked, and did full justice
to the excellent fare of one Senor Eloi, who had kindly attended the
party in capacity of major domo, keeping a watchful eye, moreover, on
vicious persons inclined to filch an over allowance of grapes, or
unconsciously to swallow an entire bottle of porter, which, by the way,
is an unpardonable crime on aquatic recreations like the present.

Towards evening, refreshed by _siesta_ and bath, we shouldered rifles
for the chase. I returned very soon, satisfied with stumping along the
beach, where were strewn hundreds of thousands of polypii, or squids,
with large black eyes like human beings, their putrefying jelly-like
carcasses filling the air with a horrible stench; after a sweltering
tramp over the dry, parched ravines and hills of the island, which were
thickly covered with scrub cactus, having thorns nearly as long as
bayonets, and very much sharper, as I found to the damage of my legs and
trousers. I saw nothing within range of a bullet, and was altogether
tolerably disgusted, and glad to get once more within shelter of the
tents. My companions were more fortunate--they started numbers of
deer--were far more fatigued from their tramp, and returned quite as
empty handed.

Game is said to be very abundant on the Peninsula, but I can hardly
believe the nature of the country admits of it. We had venison
occasionally, of indifferent quality, flavored with the flowers and
shoots of the aloes, upon which the deer can only fi