The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18
EXCURSIONS IN CANARIES
HOW THE NATIVES LIFE-THE E
 COCHINEAL IND USTRR.
LUguna aud tho Far-Fameo Vale Of
 OIotava.

t Special Correspondence of the Journs } and Courier).
 Santa Cruz de Tenerifte, Canary Islands, Dec, 14 1901.
 Desiring to learn as much as we cal r of the CanarieS in the shortest possibl time, we have been making d series O excursions in each of the seven islands
 whose combined area is about that o
 the State of Connecticut. Traveling lla
 difficulties on these small specks of Ian,
 in mId-Atlantic. It is easy enough t'
 go from island to island, because vessel
 are constantly plying to and fro in th
 coasting trade; but beyond the ports IT.
 few roads and'no public conveyances
 If one is good pedestrian, he may
 make walking tours"-once so fash
 ionable on the continent-With perfect
 safety and certainty of hospitable
 treatment. While in the United States
 such a traveller would be mistaken for 2
 tramp and find doors locked in his face
 and in England is nowadays regarded
 with cold disfavor, he is good-natured-
 ly tolerated in other parts of Europe
 because of the money he usually spends lltGly-tHOuSU lUOkSo upoli Nl " VI
 mild lunatic who will bear watching
 But in these lonesome islands the few
 well-to-do residents on their estates in
 the rural districts, hail the traveller,
 however he comes, s boon from heav-
 en, because he brings with him a
 breadth of the world beyond the ocean
 which forms their prison walls.
 Doubtless the average tourist will do
 his travelling in the Canaries as the ma"
 tives do-on the lean and lazy island
 ponies; and always hire boy to run
 alongside his beast and wave leafy
 bough to partially disperse the sWarms
 of flies, which would otherwise make 1 life intolerable and cause the animals | to lie down and roll at inconveniently 1 frequent intervals. Occasionally you
 meet a man perched aloft in the hump | of huge, brown creature, miscalled l camel, or leading the foremost of | string of them, tied nose to tail. the back of each piled high with mer chan
 disc. The dromedaries of the Canaries
 which are very much larger than the
 true camel are supposed to have been brought over from the nearby desert
 of Sahara by the Norman conquerors. IHe dTllfildIS are Sdlu lD tillNe well III
 the islands of their adoption, and are certainly very docile, kneeling to re- ceive incredible burdens of lime stone or pineknots, and trudgins patiently up hill and down, from dawn till dark. But,
 from want of care; or proper food, they are almost completely denuded of hair and become the ugliest and most pitt full looking creatures that ever fitted through the disordered fancies of a hasheesh dream. So silently do they tread the ground that their owners are compelled by law to furnish each with a bell, to give warning of its approach. It is a remarkable fact that while these animals will not breed at all on Ten eriffe island, they are prolific in other parts of the archipelago; especially on rocky little Lancerote, which has been entirely given up to that purpose and turned into ea-girt dromledary- rancho, so to say. You will not care to explore it. interesting though it may be, because the peculiar odor which dis tinguishes everything of the camel species-the very antipodes of that which characterized "Araby, the Blest" is almost unbearable, even when only
 
 the deck of vessel anchored in the harbor. It is said that these proverbial- ly docile and patient beasts become fe- rocious when in numbers and not un der the control of man, so that there is really some danger in visiting Lan cerote. Now and then the good people of Teneriffe treat themselves to d. version seldom heard of in any other l part of the world-viz. camel-fighting. after the manner of bull fights in old Spain, the step-mother country. The animals are muzzled for this alleged sport, and fight with ten times the fury of bulls striking out with the power of battering rams and trampling every thing in sight.
 At this time of year when rain has not fallen for several months, all na- ture in the Canaries years a parched and burnt-up look, Even the giant cacti and aloes have lost their green ness, if they ever had any, and in whole days Journey nothing releives the barren chaos of basalt and lava, but prickly-bear bushes covered with millions of cochineal bugs On the road between Santa Cruz and Orotava you pass many women trudgng along on foot, with boxes of live wood lice (cochineal bugs) on their heads, which they are carrying over to the north side of the island, to plant" as it is called. It seems that the bug mothers prefer to deposit their young on the leaves of ! certain species of cacti; and in order to Increase the supply of marketable eochineal, the people carefully pick off he older females at the proper season, ay them. one by one in thin Cambric 1ags and wrap them around fresh plants in new place, The plan works admirably in utilitarian point of view; but is must be confessed that it loes not add to the beauty of the land ;cape to see miles of it wrapped up in ags, The soft air of this lovelest cl- , nate in the world soothes the weary !, raveler to a mental condition of Ireamy repose: but it does not add to 7 his tranquility to know that, far as ; he eye can sec, every green thing rowing is fairly alive with wood-lice a million to the square inch" After he hatching process, the new families peedily reach maturity. Then all but few of the females are picked off (by l and), and dried--either in the sun, or n ovens and then are ready for ship nent. Nothing less complicated can be