“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.”
The party had paused on the street near the beach to hear the account; and the doctor pointed out a package of the cochineal, as an illustration of his subject.