The  pale-green  of  cane-fields  becomes  monotonous;  then  at  length


OUR  PORTO  RICO  271

the  blue  sea  breaks  again  on  the  horizon.  Beyond  Arecibo  the  rail-
road runs  close  along  the  shore,  with  almost  continuous  villages  of
shaggy  huts  half  hidden  among  the  endless  cocoanut-grove  that  girdles
Porto  Rico,  the  waves  lapping  at  the  roots  of  the  outmost  trees.  These
without  exception  are  encircled  by  broad  bands  of  tin.  During  an
epidemic  of  bubonic  plague  the  mongoose  was  introduced  into  the
island,  as  into  nearly  all  the  West  Indies,  to  exterminate  the  rats.
The  rodents  developed  new  habits  and  took  to  climbing  the  slanting
cocoanut  trees,  which  afforded  both  food  and  a  place  of  refuge.  The
bands  of  tin  have  served  their  purpose.  To-day  both  rats  and  snakes
are  scarce  in  Porto  Rico,  but  the  inhabitants  discovered  too  late  that
the  chicken-loving  mongoose  may  be  an  even  greater  pest  than  those
it  has  replaced.  Cocoanuts  brought  more  than  one  Porto  Rican  a
quick  fortune  during  the  war.  Now  that  the  gas-mask  has  degener-
ated into  a  mural  decoration,  however,  immense  heaps  of  the  fibrous
husks  lie  shriveling  away  where  the  armistice  overtook  them,  and  even
the  favorable  state  of  the  copra  market  seems  incapable  of  shaking
the  growers  out  of  their  racial  apathy.
