Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-22

places literally line the banks, tor targets.
The alligator is by no means frisky Great
ure, as those who are acquainted with his
habits may know, but is not to be trusted
even in his hours of apparent oblivion.
With their noses to the river, their small
ewes closed and great jaws half open, they
seem to be sound asleep, until the boat is
close upon them, when in the twinkling OF
an eve the jaws shut with the snap of a
mammoth rat trap, and they plunge into
the water in slow pursuit. The boat is
always followed by a school of them, prob
ably in hope of meal, each seeming to
say in the language of the nursery tale
monster Gee, Fl, foo, fun! / smell the
blood of an English-man, and, dead or
alive, / will have some"
What rare field is this for the alliga-
tor hunter? Considering the value of the
skins and the enormous demand for them
in the manufacture of shoes, satchels, etc.,
the wonder grows why some thrifty 9ankee
has not bethought himself that fortunes lie
in the exhaustless crop.
On board Magdalena steamer
THE ORDER OF EVERY DAY
Is about as follows: At o'clock the stew.
ward thrusts under your mosquito net a
cup of coffee and small but very crusty
loaf of bread (the size of biscult), Of
course without butter. This is the desqjuno
universal in Spanish-America. Not an
other mouthful will you get until break
fast or dlmuerzo, which occurs between II
and u o'clock, and is much like a north
ern midday dinner barring the excess Of
grease and garlic), served in five Or six
courses, always beginning with the soup
and ending with fruit and coffee. Dinner
comes about P. NJ, and is the counter
part of breakfast, with the addition Of
wine and dessert.
No matter how days may drag, one
makes great mistake who does NOT arise
with the lark and the alligator, fer by far
the pleasantest time is in the early morn
ing. No pen or tongue can describe the
beauty of sunrise and sunset in this latl-
tude, where the skies flush marvellous col,
ors of crimson and gold, orange, pale blue,
pink, sea-green, bending to the snow
tipped mountains on either side, whose
stately slopes change from amethyst to
purple and gray.
There are tall, gray and white storks,
standing silent and motionless in the ira
ditional a
oNE-LEG ATTITUDE
| On bits of floating log, watching for fish
There are the big gray-blue herons and
sometimes white ones; and clumsy pelicans
which, by the way, invariably fly from
south to north in the morning, never by
any chance or circumstance turning toward
another point of the compass. And then
about o'clock P NJ, home they go again
| every mothers bird of them, flying in :
straight line from north to SOUTH one
behind another.
Occasionally we pass canoe, hollowef
out of the trunk of single tree arc
manned by copper-hued, shock-headed In.
dians, dressed in exceedingly sulinery
costume of white apron tied around ths
waist. There are many small ISLANDS II
the river, all green as emeralds, heckec
and checkered with sunshine among the
trees. There are miles of banana groves
now mostly stripped OF leaves by. tht
locusts, that have been doing great dam
age drought the country and sometime
the landscape is varied by groups of tai
trees overgrown with poisoning creepers
There is the papaw, the guaycon, the tam
arind, the papaya, the mango, whose lus
cious fruit perfumes the air, enormou;
gourd trees and the "Holy Tree" which
grows to a tremendous hight and has q
single cluster of flowers growing away al
the top, in which live great numbers o.
| ants. Brown and black monkeys swing
from their branches, and splendidly
dressed macaws, with ruddy brown and
black feathers and long scarlet tails, fly
screaming at our approach.
| Two or three times day we stop a
some little village for freight and fuel
where half-naked negroes comes on board
selling-strangely carved spoons and bottle.
made of long-necked gourds, flowers, fruits
chickens, eggs, etc. The women seem tt
do all the business in these places, and t
carry all the burdens, the men being sim
ply ornamental. The universal dress o
the latter consists of nothing but pair o
breeches striped red and white, reaching t.
the knees, leaving the wearer bare abov'
and below; while the women perambulat,
in low-necked, sleeveless, short and scanty
gowns of purple calico.
Sometimes we get off and enjoy ram
BILE, always returning laden with strang
flowers, rare butterflies and other curiosi
ties. However lovely these river-sid,
hamlets may appear from altar, their BAN
boo walls and matched roofs shaded By
cocoa-palms and broad-leaved bananas,
nearer approach discloses filth and seualor
in the midst of which black pigs and vari
ously-coiored babies roll about together.
FANNIE B. WARD.