“I suppose he will convoy us here, as he has before,” added Scott. “I wonder if there is a place on the face of the earth where he has not been.” “He was a surgeon in the navy for a good many years; and I suppose our men-of-war have visited all these islands.” “Are you willing to take us in tow, doctor?” asked Scott, as the surgeon, attended by Capt. Sheridan and Lieut. Murray, approached them. “I shall be very happy to do so if you won’t labor too hard with those tremendous jokes of yours,” replied the doctor, laughing. “I don’t think I labor very hard at them. I try to be as solemn as an owl; but somehow I don’t get along worth a cent,” pleaded Scott. “I should be sorry to have you break your back by struggling in the other direction; and I have not the slightest objection to your jokes; only labor not to be funny.” “I strive not to do so; and I have rejected some of the best things ever thought of, because I found I had been studying upon them.” “Doubtless you did wisely. But we will commence our walk,” added Dr. Winstock, as he led the way from the shore. “I suppose you noticed the appearance of the island from the ships?” “I noticed it during the whole of my watch yesterday,” replied Scott; “and I thought it looked more like a busted volcano than any thing I ever saw before.” “At a distance the mountain near the centre seems to be the whole island; and some of the pictures of the peak make it rise directly from the sea.” “The whole thing looked like a cinder just raked out of a blacksmith’s forge. It don’t look so now.” “It reminds me of Greece, where the hills are red and barren. There appears to be no room for the cultivation of any thing on this island, as you look at it from the sea; for we cannot see any thing of its beautiful valleys and plains enclosed by mountains. But the appearance is not very far from the fact, for not more than one-seventh of the whole surface of the island can be cultivated; but the arable land is immensely productive.” “What do they raise here?” asked Murray. “Grapes, which they manufacture into wine and brandy; mulberry-trees, with which they feed the silk-worm, and silk is one of the exports; potatoes, wheat, Indian corn, oranges, almonds; and the bees produce honey and wax for shipment. Cochineal is a very important article of commerce.” “What is cochineal?” asked Scott. “I heard some one say it was made of bugs, and was used to color candy and things.” “Some one told you correctly. Cochineal is a very valuable dye-stuff. It consists of the bodies of the _cocus cacti_, a little bug about the size of a grain of barley, but more in the shape of a dried pea. It belongs to the _cocidæ_, which are the most injurious of insects about plants, as in hot-houses. The orange-trees of the Azores were well-nigh destroyed by them in 1843; and Fayal, which usually exports twelve thousand boxes of this fruit, did not send off a single one that year.”