of their heads ao-ainst that of the cutwater. Here a
large turtle is seen floating in the water, yonder a
huge, snorting blackfish goes plunging by, and over
beyond a whale up-blowing his waterspout. Sea-birds
circling and swooping hither and thither watch the
ship's wake for their breakfast.
There are three Mexican ports between Acapulco and the gulf of California at which the Panama steamers sometimes touch, Manzanillo, some four hundred nciles north of Acapulco, San Bias, about a hundred and fifty miles above Manzanillo, and Mazat- lan, opposite Cape St Lucas, a hundred miles or so above San Bias. Manzanillo is a liamlet of perhaps three hundred severally tinted inhabitants, the sea- port of Colima, a fine city about seventy-five miles inland. On a clear day is seen the volca- no of Colima, the monarch spit-fire of the coast, whose crest, thirteen tliousand feet in height, is nearly always covered with snow. Leaving Las Tres Marias island on the left, we approach the lofty mountains bounding the roadstead of San Bias. The ship anchors some distance from the town, which consists of three or four hundred adobe and rudely thatched palmetto-roofed houses, situated along narrow irregular sandy streets, and a dilapi- dated fort standinp" on a hia;h rock behind it. The picturesque port of Mazatlan is protected from the otherwise unbroken swells of the ocean by a chain of rocks, or surf-scarred islands, against and between which the sea dashes into foam. The anchorage within is safe, except from southeast gales. On ap- proaching the harbor, the entrance, scarred and hewn in the dark red cliffs, opens to view, and across the green transparent water shines the city like a white picture, with a dim background of mountain blue. Mazatlan is the most important Mexican sea-port on the Pacific, and displays unmistakable evidence of commercial activity and thrift. The population is 12,000 or 15,000, the climate healthy, the houses sub-
