The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-08

l you toss handful of reis among them.
 the smallest Portuguese coin, of which
 a pocketful is Woroth less than an
 American dime, and leave them scram- bling.
 The way to Sain' Ana leads through
 a region of many quintas. Coffee trees
 fill the spaces between the houses and
 every door-yard is fragrant with camil-
 la-japonica and hedged with fuscias,
 l1eliotrope and seranium. Plane trees
 and gigantic willows droop overhead,
 and the splendid coral tree mingles with
 scarlet hibiscus and the snowy bells of the tulip tree. Presently the far-famed 1 trellises begin, arched from wall to wall
 above the roadway, making a leafy bower under which you ride for many miles. Some of the trellises are cov- cred with great masses of bougainville in full bloom; others with squash vines,
 the enormous squashes upheld by straps; but most of them support grape vines, the huge clusters of purple and white fruit dangling within easy reach Sometimes the tinklng of a guitar is heard overhead; and, looking up, you
 see dark-eyed senorita seated in a little rustic house which is elevated on stilts, close behind the high wall, so that the family, screened within it's vine-
 severed lattice, may at all times see what is happening on the highway; and nine times out of ten, if the senorita be of the peasant class, her small brother or servant will rush out of the quinta gate and solicit a few reis from the passerby, with which the young wo- man buys her modest finery.
 Anon we wound between tall hedges of Agave Americana, Century plant,) whose blue green bayonets bristle on either side of the path; or eucalyptus trees, trembling above banks sprawled over by snaky cacti known to us as "prick1y pear" Millions of honey bees and golden winged insects rejoice in the sun, but the traveller may console him. self if a bee now and then drops down his back or goes on voyage of explo- ration where angels fear to tread, by the Knowledge that the bees are, sting less and there are no snakes nor any dangerous animals in the archipelago. The only creature to be dreaded is the, small tarantula; but he Is not common, and his bite, though sometimes painful, is never deadly. There is an enormous spotted spider, called "zebraz," which looks frightful enough to throw nerv- ous person into spasms, but is quite harmless. It confines itself exclusive 1y to the prickly pear where it weaves thick, strong ropes from thorn to thorn, like suspension bridges, and on the mid dle of each rope suspends a cocoon. The latter is shaped like kettle-d drum and the spider sits on the flat side of it while incubating.
 All the way up hill and down dale, past quintas and barren lands and through the ravines, a rapid, noisy stream of ice-cold water dances along one side of the road, often on both sides, through artificial channels a foot 1 wide The channels are levadas part of Madeiras fine system of irrigation, by which the town, fields and gardens are all supplied with water. Cultiva- tion is largely dependent on irrigation, l for while there are plenty of streams 1 running at all seasons, their sources | are high up In the mountains, and the ! water falling from great heights into deep ravines, cannot be made availab ble | for watering the arabic lands, except l by engineering skill. So the streams are stopped near their elevated sources i, and diverted into narrow channels, me andering along the vertical sides of stu- pendous precipices, then coursing by | easy gradations along the gardens and | terraces of the islands. Or springs are collected into great tanks far up on the heights from which several main take the water down to the lower table-lands, whence many branches are directed down the steep streets of the city and into the foun- tains and court yards. The law al- lows each landho1der to use the current which dashes past his grounds, for length of. time equivalent to sixteen hours in every forty days, but not a. more. He must be ready to avail himself of the privilege whenever notified that his turn has come, or his field will go wateress another forty days FANNIE B. WARD.
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 MOTART T,OnTLN N E Q p