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aturalist in Nicaragua : Narrative of a
Residence at the Gold Mines of Chontales :
• Journeys in the Savannahs and Forests, map
and illustrations, FIRST EDITION, cr. 8vo., orig,
cloth, Lond., 1874. AN ExCEPTIONALLY FINE
COPY. *
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THE
NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA:
A NARRATIVE OF
A RESIDENCE AT THE GOLD MINES OF CHONTALES ;
JOURNEYS IN THE SAVANNAHS AND FORESTS.
WITH
OBSERVATIONS ON ANIMALS AND PLANTS IN REFERENCE TO THE
THEORY OF EVOLUTION OF LIVING FORMS.
By THOMAS JPLT, F.G.S.,
> -
AUTHOR OF “MINERAL vBINs,” “THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NoFTH AMERICA,”
ETC., ETC.
“It was his faith, perhaps is mine,—
That life in all its forms is one,
And that its secret conduits run
Unseen, but in unbroken line,
From the great fountain-head divine,
Through man and beast, through grain and grass.”
LONGFELLOW.
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
- - LONDON :
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
- 1874.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
yº, V.4, tº
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LONDON :
BRADBURY, AGNEw, & Co., PRINTERs, whiteFRIARs.
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TO
HENRY WALTER BATES,
WHOSE ADMIRABLE WORK,
“THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS,”
HAS BEEN MY GUIDE AND MODEL,
§ {}rbitate this 300k,
AS A TORIEN OF RESPECT AND FRIENDSEIIP.
PR E FA C E.
-Ö–-
THE following pages have been written during the
intervals between arduous professional engagements.
Begun on the Atlantic during my voyage home from
Central America, the first half relieved the tedium of
a long and slow recovery from the effects of an acci-
dent occurring on board ship. The middle of the
manuscript found me traversing the high passes of the
Snow-clad Caucasus, where I made acquaintance with
the Abkassians, in whose language Mr. Hyde Clarke
finds analogies with those of my old friends the Bra-
zilian Indians. I now write this brief preface and the
last chapter of my book (with “ Bradshaw's Conti-
mental Guide” as my only book of reference), on my
way across the continent to the Urals, and beyond,
to the country of the nomad Kirghizes and the far
Altai mountains on the borders of Thibet; and when
readers receive my work I shall probably have turned
my face homewards again, and for weeks be speed-
ing across the frozen Siberian steppes, wrapped in
furs, listening to the sleigh bells, and wondering how
my book has sped. It is full of theories—I trust
not unsupported by facts: some thought out on the
plains of Southern Australia; some during many a
vi PREFACE.
solitary sleigh drive over frozen lakes in North Ame-
rica; some in the great forests of Central and South
America; some on the wide ocean, with the firmament
above and below blending together on the horizon;
and some, again, in the bowels of the earth, seeking
for the mine's hidden riches. The thoughts are those
of a lifetime compressed into this little book; and,
like the genii of the Arabian tale, imprisoned in an
urn, they may, when it is opened, grow and magnify,
or, on the contrary, be kicked back into the sea of
oblivion.
This much is necessary; not to disarm criticism,
but to excuse myself to those authors whose labours
on some of the subjects I have treated of may not have
been mentioned. I have, during my various sojourns
in England, worked hard to read up the literature of
the various questions discussed, but I know there
must be many oversights and omissions in referring to
what others have done ; especially with regard to
continental writers, for I know no language but my
mother-tongue, and their works, excepting where I
have had access to translations, have been sealed
books to me.
I am indebted to Mr. H. W. Bates for much assist-
ance, and especially for undertaking the superin-
tendence of these sheets in their passage through the
press; to Mr. W. C. Hewitson, of Oatlands Park, I am
thder many obligations for taking charge of my ento-
mological collections, for naming many of my butter-
flies, and for access to his magnificent collection of
PREFACE. Wii
Diurnal Lepidoptera. Mr. Osbert Salvin and Dr. P.
L. Sclater have named for me my collection of birds;
and for much entomological information I am in-
debted to Professor Westwood, Mr. F. Smith, and
Dr. D. Sharp ; whilst, in botany, Professor D. Oliver,
of Kew, has kindly named for me some of the plants.
Through the assistance of these eminent authorities,
I trust that the scientific names scattered throughout
the book may be depended upon as correct.
NIJNI Novgorod,
October 9th, 1873.
C O N T E N T S.
——º. --—
CHAPTER I.
A.
Arrival at Greytown—The River San Juan–Silting up of the Hºnour GE
—Crossing the Bar—Lives lost on if–Sharks—Christopher Colum-
bus—Appearance of the Town—Trade—Healthiness of the Town
and its probable cause—Comparison between Greytown, Pernam-
buco, and Maceio-Wild Fruits—Plants—Parrots, Toucans, and
Tanagers—Butterflies and Beetles—Mimetic Forms—Alligators :
Boy drowned at Blewfields by one—Their method of catching
Wild Pigs
CHAPTER II.
Commence Journey up San Juan River—Palms and Wild Canes—Plan-
tations—The Colorado River—Proposed Improvement of the
River—Progress of the Delta—Mosquitoes—Disagreeable Night
—Fine Morning—Vegetation of the Banks—Seripiqui River—
Mot-mots— Foraging Ants: their method of Hunting—Ant-
Thrushes—They attack the Nests of other Ants—Birds' Nests,
how preserved from them—Reasoning powers in Ants—Parallel
between the Mammalia and the Hymenoptera—Utopia. . . II
CHAPTER III.
Journey up River continued—Wild Pigs and Jaguar—Bungos—Reach
IMachuca—Castillo—Capture of Castillo by Nelson—India-rubber
Trade—Rubber-men—Method of making India-rubber—Congo
Monkeys—Macaws—The Savallo River—Endurance of the Boat-
men—San Carlos—Interoceanic Canal—Advantages of the Nica-
raguan Route—The Rio Frio—Stories about the Wild Indians—
Indian Captive Children—Expeditions up the Rio Frio–Ame-
rican River Steamboats . e g g & º &
Y CONTENTS. .
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
The Lake of Nicaragua–Ometepec.—Becalmed on the Lake—White
Cygnets—Reach San Ubaldo—Ride across the Plains—Vegetation
of the Plains—Armadillo Savannahs—Jicara Trees—Jicara Bowls
— Origin of Gourd-shaped Pottery—Coyotes-—Mule-breeding
—Reach Acoyapo–Festa—Cross High Range—Esquipula—The
Rio Mico—Supposed Statues on its Banks—Pital–Cultivation of
Maize—Its use from the earliest times in America—Separation of
the Maize-eating from the Mandioca-eating Indigenes of America
—Tortillas—Sugar-making—Enter the Forest of the Atlantic
Slope—Wegetation of the Forest—Muddy Roads—Arrive at Santo
Domingo & º & g © & e o & . 43
CHAPTER W.
Geographical position of Santo Domingo—Physical Geography—The
Inhabitants—Mixed Races—Negroes and Indians compared—
Women—Establishment of the Chontales Gold Mining Company
—My House and Garden—Fruits—Plantains and Bananas: pro-
bably not indigenous to America : propagated from Shoots : do
not generally mature their Seeds—Fig-trees—Granadillas and
Papaws—Wegetables—Dependence of Flowers on Insects for their
Fertilization—Insect Plagues—Leaf-cutting Ants : their method
of defoliating Trees : their Nests—Some Trees are not touched
by the Ants —Foreign Trees are very subject to their attack—
Method of Destroying the Ants—Migration of the Ants from a
Nest attacked—Corrosive Sublimate causes a sort of Madness
amongst them—Indian plan of preventing their ascending young
Trees—Leaf-cutting Ants are fungus-growers and eaters—
Sagacity of the Ants . © * e & g & 61
*
CHAPTER WI.
Configuration of the Ground at Santo Domingo—Excavation of Walleys
—Geology of the District—Decomposition of the Rocks—Gold-
mining—Auriferous Quartz Weins–Mode of occurrence of the
Gold—Lodes richer next the surface than at lower depths—Ex-
cavation and Reduction of the Ore—Extraction of the Gold—
“Mantos "LOrigin of Mineral Weins : their connection with
intrusions of Plutonic Rocks & e g . 85
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER WII.
xi
PAGE
Climate of the north-eastern side of Nicaragua—Excursions around
Santo Domingo —The Artigua–Corruption of Ancient Names—
Butterflies, Spiders, and Wasps—Humming-birds, Beetles, and
Ants—Plants and Trees—Timber—Monkey attacked by Eagle
—White-faced Monkey—Anecdotes of a tame one—Curassows
and other game Birds—Trogons, Woodpeckers, Mot-mots, and
Toucans &
CHAPTER VIII.
Description of San Antonio Walley—Great variety of animal life—
Pitcher-flowered Marcgravias—Flowers fertilized by Humming-
birds—By Insects—Provision in some flowers to prevent insects,
not adapted for carrying the pollen, from obtaining access to the
nectaries—Stories about Wasps—Humming-birds bathing—Nest
of Myriapods—Ascent of Peña Blanca—Tapirs and Jaguars—
Summit of Peña Blanca
CHAPTER IX.
Journey to Juigalpa-Description of Libertad—The Priest and the
Pell—Migratory Butterflies and Moths—Indian Graves—Ancient
Names—Dry River-beds—Monkeys and Wasps—Reach Juigalpa,
—Ride in neighbourhood—Abundance of small birds—A Poor
Cripple —The “Toledo ’” — Trogons — Waterfall — Sepulchral
Mounds—Broken Statues— The Sign of the Cross—Contrast
between the ancient and the present Inhabitants—Night Life
* CHAPTER X.
Juigalpa–A Nicaraguan Family—Description of the Road from Jui-
galpa to Santo Domingo—Comparative scarcity of Insects in Nica-
ragua in 1872—Water-bearing Plants—Insect-traps—The south-
western edge of the Forest Region—Influence of Cultivation upon
it—Sagacity of the Mule
CHAPTER XI.
Start on journey to Segovia—Rocky Mountain Road— A Poor Lodging
—The Rock of Cuapo–The use of large beaks in Some Birds—
. I 03
. 126
. 150
. 176
xii CoNTENTs.
PAGE
Comoapa–A Native Doctor—Vultures—Flight of Birds that Soar
—Natives live from generation to generation on the same spot—
Do not give distinctive Names to the Rivers—Caribs barter Guns
and Iron-pots for Dogs—The Hairless Dogs of Tropical America—
Difference between Artificial and Natural Selection—The cause of
Sterility between Allied Species considered—The disadvantages
of a covering of hair in a domesticated animal in a Tropical
Country & & g e tº e & e * . 191
CHAPTER, XII.
Olama—The “Sanate”—Muymuy—Idleness of the People—Moun-
tain Road—The “Bull Rock ’’—The Bull's-horn Thorn—Ants
kept as Standing Armies by some Plants—Use of Honey-secreting
Glands—Plant-lice, Scale-insects, and Leaf-hoppers furnish Ants
with Honey, and in return are protected by the latter—Contest
between Wasps and Ants—Waxy Secretions of the Homopterous
Hemiptera . * g e tº * > tº . 212
CHAPTER XIII.
Matagalpa-Aguardiente—Fermented Liquors of the Indians—The
Wine Palm—Idleness of the Nicaraguans — Pine and Oak
Forests—Mountain Gorge—Jinotega–Native Plough—Descend-
ants of the Buccaneers—Sam Rafael—A Mountain Hut . . 231
CHAPTER XIV.
Great Range composed of Boulder Clay—Daraily—Lost on the Savan-
nahs — Jamaily—A Deer-hunter's Family—Totagalpa-Walls
covered with Cement and Whitewashed—Ocotal—The Valley of
Depilto—Silver Mine—Geology of the Walley—Glacial Drift—
The Glacial Period in Central America—Evidence that the Ice
extended to 'the Tropics—Scarcity of Gold in the Walley Gravels
—Difference of the Mollusca on the East and West Coast of the
Isthmus of Darien—The Refuge of the Tropical American Animals
and Plants during the Glacial Period—The Lowering of the Sea
Level—The Land Shells of the West Indian Islands—The Malay
Archipelago—Easter Island—Atlantis–Traditions of the Deluge. 247
CONTENTS. xiii
CHAPTER XV.
- PAGE
A Nicaraguan Criminal—Geology between Ocotal and Totagalpa-Pre-
parations at Totagalpa for their Annual Festival—Chica-drinking
—Piety of the Indians—Ancient Civilization of Tropical America
—Palacaguina —Hospitality of the Mestizos—Curious Custom at
the Festival at Condego—Cross Range between Segovia and Mata-
galpa-Sontuli—Birds' Nests . e tº tº & * . 275
CHAPTER XVI.
Concordia—Jinotega–Indian Habits retained by the People—Indian
Names of Towns—Security of Travellers in Nicaragua–Native
Flour-milk—Uncomfortable Lodgings—Tierrabona—Dust Whirl-
wind—Initial form of a Cyclone—The origin of Cyclones . . 292
CHAPTER XVII.
Cattle-raising—Don Filiberto Trano's new House—Horse-flies and
Wasps—Teustepe—Spider imitating Ants—Mimetic Species—
Animals with special means of defence are conspicuously marked,
or in other ways attract attention—Accident to Horse—The
Mygale—Illness—Conclusion of Journey . gº g & . 308
CHAPTER XVIII.
Division of Nicaragua into three Zones—Journey from Juigalpa to
Lake of Nicaragua–Voyage on Lake—Fresh-water Shells and
Insects—Similarity of Fresh-water productions all over the World
—Distribution of European Land and Fresh-water Shells—Dis-
cussion of the reasons why Fresh-water productions have varied
less than those of the Land and of the Sea & * g . 327
CHAPTER, XIX.
Iguanas and Lizards—Granada—Politics—Revolutions—Cacao Culti-
vation—Masaya—The Lake of Masaya—The Wolcano of Masaya
—Origin of the Lake Basin . g s & jº g . 338
xiv. CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
PAGE
Indian Population of the country lying between the great lakes of
Nicaragua and the Pacific—Discovery and Conquest of Nicaragua
by the Spaniards—Cruelties of the Spaniards—The Indians of
Western Central America all belonged to one Stock—Decadence
of Mexican Civilization before the arrival of the Spaniards—The
designation “Nahuatls '' proposed to include all the Mexican,
Western Central American, and Peruvian Races that had de-
scended from the same ancient Stock—The Nahuatls distinct
from the Caribs on one side and the Red Indians on the other—
Discussion of the question of the peopling of America º . 358
CHAPTER XXI.
Return to Santo Domingo—The Birds of Chontales—The Insects of
Chontales—Mimetic forms— Departure from the Mines—Nica-
ragua as a field for Emigration—Journey to Greytown—Return
to England . - e º e e - º º . 374
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
-—º-
THE JAGUAR e tº tº tº & & . Frontispiece.
ALLIGATORS . tº PAGE 9
MOT-MOTS OF CHONTALES . 16
COMMISSIONER's HOUSE AT SANTO DOMINGO 66
NEST OF TEAF-CUTTING ANT . g e g gº 80
SECTION OF MINE SHOWING METHOD OF EXTRACTING THE
ORE g • g 92
QUARTZ-STAMPING MACHINERY . e g e © 93
SECTION OF SAN ANTONIO LODE . g & g . 94
HUMMING-BIRDs (Florisuga mellivora, Linn.) III.
TONGUES OF HUMMING-BIRD AND WOODPECKER . 113, 114
PITCHER-FLOWER (Marcgravia nepenth0ldes). g 129
FLOWER of THE “PALosABRE * . & * . . .I.30
PENA BLANCA . tº tº e g g & ... i48
INDIAN STATUES . tº d º e g wº . . i. 65
PATH UP STEEP HILL e tº º g tº . 193
QUISCALUS . te e & © & & gº . 213
BULL's-HORN THORN . . . & º g ſº gº 218
LEAF OF MELASTOMA . * e tº º g . . 223
NATIVE STILL . . . . e e gº * e . 233
NATIVE PLOUGH . ge * gº g g e . 239
GEOLOGICAL SECTION NEAR OCOTAL . e tº & . 261
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THE
NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.
CHAPTER I.
Arrival at Greytown—The River San Juan —Silting up of the
Harbour—Crossing the Bar—Lives lost on it — Sharks —
Christopher Columbus — Appearance of the Town —Trade—
Healthiness of the Town and its probable cause—Comparison.
between Greytown, Pernambuco, and Maceio—Wild Fruits—
Plants — Parrots, Toucans, and Tanagers — Butterflies and
Beetles—Mimetic Forms— Alligators—Boy drowned at Blew-
fields by an Alligator—Their method of catching wild Pigs.
AT noon on the 15th February, 1868, the R.M.S.S.
Solent, in which I was a passenger, anchored off Grey-
town, or San Juan del Norte, the Atlantic port of
Nicaragua in Central America. We lay about a mile
from the shore, and saw a low flat coast stretching before
us. It was the delta of the river San Juan, into which
flows the drainage of a great part of Nicaragua and Costa
Bica, and which is the outlet for the waters of the great
lake of Nicaragua. Its water-shed extends to within a
few miles of the Pacific, for here the isthmus of Central
America, as in the great continents to the north and
South of it, sends off by far the largest portion of its
drainage to the Atlantic. In the rainy season the San
- B
2 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. I.
Juan is a noble river, and even in the dry months, from
March to June, there is sufficient water coming down
from the lake to keep open a fine harbour, if it were not
that about twenty miles above its mouth it begins to
dissipate its force by sending off a large branch called
the Colorado river, and lower down parts with more of
its waters by side channels. Twenty years ago the main
body of water ran past Greytown ; there was then a
magnificent port, and large ships sailed up to the town,
but for several years past the Colorado branch has been
taking away more and more of the waters, and the port
of Greytown has in consequence silted up. All ships
now have to lie off outside, and a shallow and, in heavy
weather, dangerous bar has to be crossed.
All we could see from the steamer was the Sandy
beach on which the white surf was breaking, and be-
hind a fringe of bushes with a few coco-nut palms
holding up their feathery crowns, and in the distance a
low background of dark foliage. Before we anchored
a gun was fired, and in quick answer to the signal Some
canoes, paddled by negroes of the Mosquito coast, here
called “Caribs,” were seen crossing the bar, and in a few
minutes they were alongside. Getting into one of the
canoes with my boxes, I was rapidly paddled towards the
shore. When we reached the bar we were dexterously
taken over it—the Caribs waited just outside until a higher
wave than usual came rolling in, then paddling with all
their might we were carried over on its crest, and found
ourselves in the smooth water of the river. -
Many lives have been lost on this bar. In 1872 the
commander of the United States surveying expedition
and six of his men were drowned in trying to cross it in
Ch. I.] ARRIVAL AT GREYTOWN. 3
heavy weather. Only a few mangled remnants of their
bodies were ever found; for what adds to the horror of
an upset at this place, and perhaps has unnerved many
a man at a critical moment, is that large sharks Swarm.
about the entrance to the river. We saw the fin of one,
rising above the surface of the water as it swam lazily
about; and the sailors of the mail steamers when lying
off the port often amuse themselves by catching them
with large hooks baited with pieces of meat. It is pro-
bable that it was at one of the mouths of the San Juan
that Columbus, in his fourth voyage, lost a boat's crew
who had been sent for wood and fresh water, and when
returning were swamped on the bar. Columbus had
rounded Cape Gracias a Dios four days before, and had
sailed down the coast with a fair wind and tide, so that
he might easily have reached the San Juan. *
Inside the bar we were in smooth water, for but a
small stream is discharged by this channel. On our
right was a Sandy beach, on our left great beds of grass
growing out of the shoal water—weedy banks filling up
the Once spacious harbour, and cattle wading amongst
the long grass, where within the last twenty years a
frigate has lain at anchor. Wading and aquatic birds
are abundant in these marshes, amongst which white
cranes and a chocolate brown jacana, with lemon yellow
underwing, are the most conspicuous. A large alligator
lazily crawled off a mud spit into the water, where he
floated, showing only his eyes and the pointed Scales of
his back above the surface. The town was now in full
view—neat, white painted houses, with plume-crowned
palms rising amongst and over them; and we landed at
One of several wooden wharves that jut into the river.
B 2
4 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. I.
Greytown, though only a small place, is one of the
neatest tropical towns that I have visited. The houses,
especially in the business portion of the town, are well-
built of wood, and painted white with brown roofs.
Pretty flower gardens surround or front many of them.
Others are nearly hidden amongst palms and bread-fruit,
orange, mango, and other tropical fruit trees. A lovely
Creeper (Antigonon leptopus), with festoons of pink and
rose-coloured flowers, adorns some of the gardens. It is
called la vegessima, “the beautiful,” by the natives, and
I found it afterwards growing wild in the provinces of
Matagalpa and Segovia, where it was one of the great
favourites of the flower-loving Indians. The land at
Greytown and around it is perfectly level. The square,
the open spaces, and many of the streets are covered with
short grass that makes a beautiful sward to walk on.
The trade in the town is almost entirely in the hands
of foreign residents, amongst whom Mr. Hollenbeck, a
citizen of the United States, is one of the most enter-
prising. A considerable import trade is done with the
States and England, and coffee, indigo, hides, cacao,
Sugar, logwood, and India-rubber are the principal ex.
ports. I called on Dr. Green, the British Consul, and
found him a most courteous and amiable gentleman, ever
ready to afford protection or advice to his countrymen,
and on very friendly terms with the native authorities.
He has lived for many years in Nicaragua, and his many
charitable kindnesses, and especially the medical assist-
ance that he renders in all cases of emergency, free of
charge, have made him very popular at Greytown. His
beautiful house and grounds, with a fine avenue of coco-
nut trees in full bearing, form one of the most attractive
Ch. I.] CLIMATE OF GREYTOWN. 5
sights in Greytown. I found Mr. Paton, the vice-consul,
equally obliging, and I am indebted to him for much in-
formation respecting the trade of the port, particularly
with regard to the export of India-rubber, the develop-
ment of which trade he was one of the first to encourage.
Behind the town there is a long lagoon, and for several
miles back the land is quite level, and interspersed with
lakes and ponds with much marshy ground. Perfectly
level, surrounded by Swamps, and without any system
of drainage, either natural or artificial, excepting such as
the sandy soil affords, Greytown might be thought a very
unhealthy site for a town. Notwithstanding, however,
its apparent disadvantages, and that for nine months of
the year it is subject to heavy tropical rains, it is com-
paratively healthy, and freer from fever than many places
that appear at first sight better situated. Much is due
to the porous sandy soil, but more I believe to what
appears at first sight an element of danger, the perfect
flatness of the ground. Where there are hills there
must be hollows, and in these the air stagnates; whilst
here, where the land is quite level, the trade winds that
blow pretty constantly find their way to every part, and
carry off the emanations from the soil. As a similar in-
stance I may mention the city of Pernambuco, on the
eastern coast of Brazil, containing 80,000 inhabitants.
It is perfectly level like Greytown, surrounded and in-
tersected with channels of water, above the level of which
it only stands a few feet. The crowded parts of the town
are noted for their evilsmells and filth, but, though entirely
without drainage it is noted for its healthiness; whilst a
little lower down the coast the town of Maceio, situated
about sixty feet above the Sea, Surrounded by undulating
6 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. I.
ranges and with a good natural drainage is much more
unhealthy, fevers being very prevalent. As at Grey-
town so at Pernambuco, the trade winds blow with much
regularity, and there are no hills nor hollows to interfere
with the movements of the air, so that miasmatic ex-
halations cannot accumulate.
Surrounding the cleared portions around Greytown is
a scrubby bush, amongst which are many guayava trees
(Psidium sp.) having a fruit like a small apple filled
with seeds, of a sub-acid flavour, from which the cele-
brated guava jelly is made. The fruit itself often
occasions severe fits of indigestion, and many of the
natives will not swallow the Small seeds, but only the
pulpy portion, which is said to be harmless. I saw
another fruit growing here, a yellow berry about the size
of a cherry, called “Nancito ” by the natives. It is
often preserved by them with spirit and eaten like
olives. Beyond the brushwood, which grows where the
original forest has been cut down, there are large trees.
covered with numerous epiphytes—Tillandsias, orchids,
ferns, and a hundred others, that make every big tree an
aërial botanical garden. Great arums are perched on
the forks and send down roots like cords to the ground,
whilst lianas run from tree to tree or hang in loops and
folds like the disordered tackle of a ship.
"Green parrots fly over in screaming flocks, or nestle
in loving couples amidst the foliage; toucans hop along
the branches, turning their long, highly-coloured beaks.
from side to side with an old-fashioned look, and beautiful
tanagers (Ramphocaeſus passerinii) frequent the outskirts.
of the forest, all velvety black, excepting a large patch
of fiery-red above the tail, which renders the bird very
Ch. I.] BEETLES RESEMBLING CATERPILLARS. 7
conspicuous. It is only the male that is thus coloured,
the female being clothed in a sober suit of greenish-
brown. I think this bird is polygamous, for several of
the brown ones were always seen with one of the red-
and-black ones. The bright colours of the male must
make it very conspicuous to birds of prey, and, probably
in consequence, it is not nearly so bold as the obscurely-
coloured females. When a clear space in the brushwood
is to be crossed, such as a road, two or three of the
females will fly across first, before the male will venture
to do so; and he is always more careful to get himself
concealed amongst the foliage than his mates.
I walked some distance into the forest along swampy
paths cut by charcoal burners, and saw many beautiful
and curious insects. Amongst the numerous butterflies,
large blue Morphos and narrow, weak-winged Heliconidae,
stripod and spotted with yellow, red, and black, were the
most conspicuous and most characteristic of tropical
America. Amongst the beetles I found a curious longi-
corn (DeSmiphora fasciculata), covered with long brown
and black hairs, and closely resembling some of the
short, thick, hairy caterpillars that are common on the
bushes. Other closely allied species hide under fallen
branches and logs, but this one clung exposed amongst
the leaves, its antennae concealed against its body, and
its resemblance to a caterpillar so great, that I was myself
at first deceived by it. It is well known that insectivorous
birds will not touch a hairy caterpillar, and this is only
One of numberless instances where insects, that have some
Special protection against their enemies, are closely imi-
tated by others belonging to different genera, and even
different orders. Thus, wasps and stinging ants have
8 . THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. I.
hosts of imitators amongst moths, beetles, and bugs, and
I shall have many curious facts to relate concerning
these mimetic resemblances. To those not acquainted
with Mr. Bates's admirable remarks on mimetic forms, I
must explain that it is only on account of the poverty of
our language that we have to speak of one species imi-
tating another, as if it were a conscious act. No such
idea is entertained, and it might have been well if some
new term had been adopted to express what is meant.
These deceptive resemblances are supposed, by the advo-
cates of the origin of species by natural selection, to have
been brought about by varieties of one species, that
somewhat resembled another having special means of
protection, being preserved from their enemies in conse-
quence of that unconscious imitation. The resemblance,
which was perhaps at first only remote, is supposed to
have been increased in the course of ages by the varieties,
that more and more closely approached the species imi-
tated, in form, colour, and movements, being protected.
These resemblances are not only between insects of diffe-
rent genera and orders, but between insects and flowers,
leaves, twigs, and bark of trees, and between insects and
inanimate nature. They serve often for concealment, as
when leaves are imitated by leaf-insects and many but-
terflies; or for a disguise that enables predatory species
to get within reach of their prey, as in those spiders that
resemble the petals of flowers amongst which they hide.
That I may not travel over the same ground twice,
I may here mention that on a subsequent visit to Grey-
town Mr. Hollenbeck lent me his horse, and I rode a
few miles northward along the beach. On my return, I
tied up the horse and walked about a mile over the
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Ch. I.] - ALLIGATORS. 9
sand-bank that extends down to the mouth of the river.
A long, deep branch from the river is a favourite resort
for alligators. At the far end of a sand-spit, near where
Some low trees grew, I saw several dark objects lying
close to the water on the shelving banks. They were
alligators basking in the sun. As I approached, most of
them crawled into the water. Mr. Hollenbeck had been
down a few days before shooting at them with a rifle, to
try to get a skull of one of the monsters, and I passed a
dead one that he had shot. As I walked up the beach,
I saw many that were not less than fifteen feet in length.
One lay motionless, and thinking it was another dead
one, I was walking up to it, and had got within three
yards, when Isaw the film over its eye moving, otherwise
it was quite still, and its teeth projecting beyond its lips
added to its intense ugliness and appearance of death.
There was no doubt, however, about the movement of the
eye-covers, and I went back a short distance to look for a
stick to throw at him; but when I turned again, he was
just disappearing into the water. It is the habit of these
animals to lie quite still, and catch animals that come near
them. Whether or not he was waiting until I came within
the Swoop of his mighty tail I know not, but I had the
feeling that I had escaped a great danger. It was curious
that he should have been so bold only a few days after
Mr. Hollenbeck had been down shooting at them.
There were not less than twenty altogether, and they
swam out into the middle of the inlet and floated about,
looking like logs in the water, excepting that one
stretched up his head and gave a bellow like a bull.
They sometimes kill calves and young horses, and I was
told of one that had seized a full-grown horse, but its
... 10 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. I.
struggles being observed, some natives ran down and
saved it from being pulled into the water and drowned.
I heard several stories of people being killed by them,
but only one was well authenticated. This was told me
by the head of the excellent Moravian Mission, at Blew.
fields, who was a witness of the occurrence. He said
that one Sunday, after service at their chapel at Blew-
fields, Several of the youths went to bathe in the river,
which was rather muddy at the time; the first to plunge
in was a boy of twelve years of age, and he was imme-
diately seized by a large alligator, and carried along
under water. My informant and others followed in a
canoe, and ultimately recovered the body, but life was
extinct. The alligator cannot devour his prey beneath
the water, but crawls on land with it after he has
drowned it. They are said to catch wild pigs in the
forest near the river by half burying themselves in the
ground. The pigs come rooting amongst the soil, the
alligator never moves until one gets within his reach,
when he seizes it and hurries off to the river with it.
They are often seen in hot weather on logs or sand-spits
lying with their mouths wide open. The natives say
they are catching flies: that numbers are attracted by
the saliva of the mouth, and that when sufficient are
collected, the alligator closes his jaws upon them, but I
do not know what reliance can be placed on the story.
Probably it is an invention to account for the animals
lying with their mouths open; as in all half-civilised
countries. I have visited I have found that the natives
seldom admit they do not know the reason of anything,
but will invent an explanation rather than acknowledge
their ignorance.
CHAPTER II.
Commence Journey up San Juan River—Palms and Wild Canes—
Plantations—The Colorado River—Proposed Improvement of the
River—Progress of the Delta—Mosquitoes—Disagreeable Night
—Fine Morning—Vegetation of the Banks—Seripiqui river—
Mot-mots—Foraging Ants—Their method of Hunting—Ant
Thrushes—They attack the Nests of other Ants—Birds' Nests,
how preserved from them—Reasoning powers in Ants—Parallel
between the Mammalia and the Hymenoptera—Utopia.
I Found at Greytown the mail-boat of the Chontales
Gold Mining Company, which came down monthly in
charge of Captain Anderson, an Englishman who had
knocked about all over the world. The crew consisted
of four Mosquito negroes, who are celebrated on this
coast for their skill as boatmen. Besides the crew, we
were taking three other negroes up to the mines, and
with my boxes we were rather uncomfortably crowded
for a long journey. The canoe itself was made from the
trunk of a cedar-tree (Cedrela odorata). It had been
hollowed out of a single log, and the sides afterwards
built up higher with planking. This makes a very
strong boat, the strength and thickness being where it
is most required, at the bottom, to withstand the
thumping about amongst the rocks of the rapids. I
was once in one, coming down a dangerous rapid on the
river Gurupy, in Northern Brazil, when we were driven
with the full force of the boiling stream broadside upon
12 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
a rock, with such force that we were nearly all thrown
down, but the strong canoe was uninjured, although no
common boat could have stood the shock without being
staved in.
Having determined to go up the river in this boat,
we took provisions with us for the voyage, and one of
the negroes agreed to act as cook. Having arranged
everything, and breakfasted with my kind friends, Mr.
and Mrs. Hollenbeck, I bade them adieu, and settled
myself into the small space in the canoe that I expected
to occupy for six days. Captain Anderson took the
helm, the “Caribs” dipped their paddles into the
water, and away we glided into a narrow channel
amongst long grass and rushes that almost touched us
on either side. Greytown, with its neat white houses,
and feathery palms, and large-leaved bread-fruit-trees,
was soon shut out from our view, and our boatmen ply-
ing their paddles with the greatest dexterity and force,
made the canoe shoot along through the still water. Soon
we emerged into a wider channel where a stronger stream
was running, and now we coasted along close to the
shore to avoid the strength of the current. The banks
at first were low and marshy and intersected by nu-
meróus channels; the principal tree was a long, coarse-
leaved palm, and there were great beds of wild came
and grass, amongst which we occasionally saw curious
green lizards, with leaf-like expansions, which like those
on the leaf-insects assimilated them in appearance to
the vegetation amongst which it sought its prey. As
we proceeded up the river, the banks gradually became
higher and drier, and we passed some small plantations
of bananas and plantains made in clearings in the
Ch. II.] COLORADO ARM OF THE SAN JUAN. 13.
forest, which now consisted of a great variety of
dicotyledonous trees with many tall, graceful palms;
the undergrowth being ferns, small palms, Melastomac,
Heliconiae, &c. The houses at the plantations were
mostly miserable thatched huts with scarcely any furni-
ture, the owners passing most of their time Swinging in
dirty hammocks, and occasionally taking down a canoe-
load of plantains to Greytown for sale. It is one of the
rarest sights to see any of these squatters at work.
Their plantain patch and occasionally some fish from the
river suffice to keep them alive and indolent.
At seven o’clock we reached the Colorado branch,
which carries off the greater part of the waters of the
San Juan to the sea. This is about twenty miles above
Greytown, but only eighteen by the Colorado to the
sea, and is near the head of the delta, as I have already
mentioned. The main body of water formerly flowed
down past Greytown, and kept the harbour there open,
but a few years ago, during a heavy flood, the river
greatly enlarged and deepened the entrance to the
Colorado Channel, and since then year by year the Grey-
town harbour has been silting up. Now, (I am writing in
1873) there is twelve feet of water on the bar at the
Colorado in the height of the dry season, whilst at
Greytown the outlet of the river is sometimes closed
altogether. The merchants at Greytown have enter-
tained the project of dredging out the channel again,
but now that the river has found a nearer way to the
sea by the Colorado this would be a herculean task, and
it would cost much less money to move the whole town
to the Colorado, and then by dredging the bar there a
fine harbour might easily be made, but unfortunately
14 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
the Colorado is in Costa Rica, the Greytown branch in
Nicaragua, and there are constant bickerings between
the two states respecting the outlet of this fine river,
which makes any well-considered scheme for the im-
provement of it impracticable at present. A sensible
solution of the difficulty, would be a federation of the
two small republics, but the heads of the political
parties in the two countries see in this a danger to their
petty ambitions, and will not risk the step, and so the
boundary question remains an open one, threatening at
any moment to plunge the two countries into an
impoverishing war.
If the Colorado were not to be interfered with by
man, it would, in the course of ages, carry down great
quantities of mud, sand, and trunks of trees, and
gradually form sand-banks at its mouth, pushing out the
delta further and further at this point, until it was
greatly in advance of the rest of the coast; the river
would then break through again by some nearer
channel, and the Colorado would be silted up as the
Łower San Juan is being at present. The numerous
half-filled-up channels and long lagoons throughout the
delta show the various courses the river has at different
times taken. -
Our boatmen paddled on until nine o’clock, when we
anchored in the middle of the stream, which was here
about one hundred yards wide. Distant as we were
from the shores, we were not too far for the mosquitoes,
which came off in myriads to the banquet upon our
blood. Sleep for me was impossible, and to add to the
discomfort, at midnight the rain commenced to come
down in torrents. We had an old tarpaulin with us,
Ch. II.] POAT JOURNEY UP THE SAN JUAN. 15
but it was full of holes, and let in the water in little
streams, so that I was soon soaked to the skin. Alto-
gether, with the streaming wet and the mosquitoes, it
was one of the most uncomfortable nights I have ever
passed. - - -
The waning moon was sufficiently high at four o'clock
to allow us to bring the long dreary night to an end, and
to commence paddling up the river again. As the day
broke the rain ceased, the mists cleared away, Our
spirits revived, and we forgot our discomforts of the
night in admiration of the beauties of the river. The
banks were hidden by a curtain of creeping and twining
plants, many of which bore beautiful flowers, and the
greenery was further varied here and there by the
white stems of the cecropia trees. Now . and then we
passed more open spots, affording glimpses each into the
forest, where grew, in the dark shade, slender-stemmed
palms and beautiful tree-ferns, contrasting with the
great leaves of the Heliconiae. At seven we breakfasted
on a sand-bank, and got our clothes and blankets dried.
There were numerous tracks of alligators, but it was too
early to look for their eggs in the sand; a month later,
in March, when the river falls, they are found in
abundance, and eaten by the canoe-men. At noon. We
reached the point where the Seripiqui, a river coming
down from the interior of Costa Rica, joins the San
Juan about thirty miles above Greytown. The Seri-
piqui is navigable by canoes for about twenty miles from
this point, and then commences a rough mountain mule-
track to San José, the capital of Costa Rica. We
paddled on all the afternoon with little change in the
river. At eight we anchored for the night, and
16 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
although it rained heavily again, I was better prepared
for it, and, coiling myself up under an umbrella beneath
the tarpaulin, managed to sleep a little.
We started again before daylight, and at ten stopped
at a small clearing for breakfast. I strolled back a
little way into the gloomy forest, but it was not easy
to get along on account of the undergrowth and
numerous climbing plants that bound it together. I
saw one of the large olive-green and brown mot-mots
HEADS OF MOT-MOTS.
(Momotus marţii), sitting up on a branch of a tree,
moving its long curious tail from side to side, so that
it was nearly at right angles to its body. I afterwards
saw other species in the forests and savannahs of
Chontales. They all have several characters in

Ch. II.] FORAGING ANTS. 17
common, which are linked together in a series of gra-
dations from species to species. One of these features
is a spot of black feathers on the breast. In some
species this is edged with blue, in others, as in the
species mentioned above, these black feathers are nearly
obsolete, forming only a small black spot nearly hidden
amongst the rust-coloured feathers of the breast.
Characters such as these, very conspicuous in some
species, shading off in others through various gradations
to insignificance, if not extinction, are known by natural-
ists to occur in numerous genera ; and so far they have
only been explained on the supposition of the descent of
the different species from a common progenitor.
As I returned to the boat, I crossed a column of the
army or foraging ants, many of them dragging along
the legs and mangled bodies of insects that they had
captured in their foray. I afterwards often encountered
these ants in the forests, and it may be convenient to
place together all the facts I learnt respecting them.
ECITONs, or For AGING ANTs.-The Ecitons, or forag-
ing ants, are very numerous throughout Central America.
Whilst the leaf-cutting ants are entirely vegetable feeders,
the foraging ants are hunters, and live solely on insects or
other prey; and it is a curious analogy that, like the
hunting races of mankind, they have to change their
hunting-grounds when one is exhausted, and move on to
another. In Nicaragua they are generally called “Army
Ants.” One of the smaller species (Eciton predator)
used occasionally to visit our house and Swarm over the
floors and walls, searching every cranny, and driving out
the cockroaches and spiders, many of which were caught,
C
18 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
pulled, bitten to pieces and carried off. The individuals
of this species were of various sizes; the smallest
measuring one and a quarter lines, and the largest three
lines, or a quarter of an inch.
I saw many large armies of this, or a closely allied
species, in the forest. My attention was generally first
called to them by the twittering of some small birds,
belonging to several different species, that follow the ants
in the woods. On approaching, a dense body of the ants,
three or four yards wide, and so numerous as to blacken
the ground, would be seen moving rapidly in one direc-
tion, examining every cranny, and underneath every
fallen leaf. On the flanks, and in advance of the main
body, smaller columns would be pushed out. These
Smaller columns would generally first flush the cock-
roaches, grasshoppers, and spiders. The pursued insects
would rapidly make off, but many, in their confusion and
terror, would bound right into the midst of the main
body of ants. At first the grasshopper, when it found
itself in the midst of its enemies, would give vigorous
leaps, with perhaps two or three of the ants clinging to
its legs. Then it would stop a moment to rest, and that
moment would be fatal, for the tiny foes would swarm
over the prey, and after a few more ineffectual struggles
it would succumb to its fate, and soon be bitten to pieces
and carried off to the rear. The greatest catch of the
ants was, however, when they got amongst some fallen
brushwood. The cockroaches, spiders, and other insects,
instead of running right away, would ascend the fallen
branches and remain there, whilst the host of ants were
occupying all the ground below. By-and-by up would
come some of the ants, following every branch, and
Ch. II.] REMARFOABLE CASE OF INSTINCT. i9
driving before them their prey to the ends of the small
twigs, when nothing remained for them but to leap, and
they would alight in the very throng of their foes, with
the result of being certainly caught and pulled to pieces.
Many of the spiders would escape by hanging suspended
by a thread of silk from the branches, safe from the foes
that swarmed both above and below.
I noticed that spiders generally were most intelligent
in escaping, and did not, like the cockroaches and other
insects, take shelter in the first hiding-place they found,
only to be driven out again, or perhaps caught by the
advancing army of ants. I have often seen large spiders
making off many yards in advance, and apparently
determined to put a good distance between themselves
and the foe. I once saw one of the false spiders, or
harvest-men (Phalangidae), standing in the midst of an
army of ants, and with the greatest circumspection and
coolness lifting, one after the other, its long legs, which
supported its body above their reach. Sometimes as
many as five out of its eight legs would be lifted at once,
and whenever an ant approached one of those on which
it stood, there was always a clear space within reach to
put down another, so as to be able to hold up the
threatened one out of danger.
I was much more surprised with the behaviour of a
green, leaf-like locust. This insect stood immovably
amongst a host of ants, many of which ran over its legs,
without ever discovering there was food within their
reach. So fixed was its instinctive knowledge that its
safety depended on its immovability, that it allowed me
to pick it up and replace it amongst the ants without
making a single effort to escape. This species closely
C 2
20 THE NATURATIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
resembles a green leaf, and the other senses, which in
the Ecitons appear to be more acute than that of sight,
must have been completely deceived. It might easily
have escaped from the ants by using its wings, but it
would only have fallen into as great a danger, for the
numerous birds that accompany the army ants are ever
on the outlook for any insect that may fly up, and the
heavy flying locusts, grasshoppers, and cockroaches have
no chance of escape. Several species of ant-thrushes
always accompany the army ants in the forest. They do
not, however, feed on the ants, but on the insects they
disturb. Besides the ant-thrushes, trogons, creepers, and
a variety of other birds, are often seen on the branches
of trees above where an ant army is foraging below,
pursuing and catching the insects that fly up.
The insects caught by the ants are dismembered, and
their too bulky bodies bitten to pieces and carried off to
the rear; and behind the army there are always small
columns engaged on this duty. I have followed up these
columns often ; generally they led to dense masses of
impenetrable brushwood, but twice they led me to cracks
in the ground, down which the ants dragged their prey.
These habitations are only temporary, for in a few days
not an ant would be seen in the neighbourhood, but all
would have moved off to fresh hunting-grounds.
Another much larger species of foraging ant (Eciton
hamata) hunts sometimes in dense armies, sometimes in
columns, according to the prey it may be after. When
in columns, I found that it was generally, if not always,
in search of the nests of another ant (Hypoclinea sp.),
which bear their young in holes in rotten trunks of fallen
timber, and are very common in cleared places. The
Ch. II.] PREY OF THE ECITONS. 21
Ecitons hunt about in columns, which branch off in
various directions. When a fallen log is reached, the
column spreads out over it, searching through all the
holes and cracks. The workers are of various sizes, and
the Smallest are here of use, for they squeeze themselves
into the narrowest holes, and search out their prey in
the furthest ramifications of the nests. When a nest of
the Hypoclinea is attacked, the ants rush out, carrying
the larvae and pupae in their jaws, but are immediately
despoiled of them by the Ecitons, which are running
about in every direction with great swiftness. When-
ever they come across a Hypoclinea carrying a larva or
pupa, they take it from it so quickly, that I could never
ascertain exactly how it was done. *
As soon as an Eciton gets hold of its prey, it rushes off
back along the advancing column, which is composed of
two sets, one hurrying forward, the other returning laden
with their booty, but all and always in the greatest haste
and apparent hurry. About the nest which they are har-
rying, all appears in confusion, Ecitons running here and
there and everywhere in the greatest haste and disorder;
but the result of all this apparent confusion is that scarcely
a single Hypoclinea gets away with a pupa or larva. I
never saw the Ecitons injure the Hypoclineas themselves,
they were always contented with despoiling them of their
young. The ant that is attacked is a very cowardly
species, and never shows fight. I often found it running
about sipping at the glands of leaves, or milking aphides,
leaf-hoppers, or scale-insects that it found unattended by
other ants. On the approach of another, though of a
much smaller species, it would immediately run away.
Probably this cowardly and unantly disposition has
22 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
caused it to become the prey of the Eciton. At any rate,
I never saw the Ecitons attack the nest of any other
species. -
The moving columns of Ecitons are composed almost
entirely of workers of different sizes, but at intervals of
two or three yards there are larger and lighter coloured
individuals that often stop, and sometimes run a little
backward, stopping and touching some of the ants with
their antennae. They look like the officers giving orders
and directing the march of the column.
This species is often met with in the forest, not in
quest of one particular form of prey, but hunting, like
JEciton predator, only spread out over a much greater
space of ground. • Crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions, cen-
tipedes, wood-lice, cockroaches, and spiders are driven
out from below the fallen leaves and branches. Many of
them are caught by the ants, others that get away are
picked up by the numerous birds that accompany the
ants, as vultures follow the armies of the East. The
ants send off exploring parties up the trees, which hunt
for nests of wasps, bees, and probably birds. If they find
any, they soon communicate the intelligence to the army
below, and a column is sent up immediately to take pos-
session of the prize. I have seen them pulling out the
larvae and pupae from the cells of a large wasp’s nest,
whilst the wasps hovered about, powerless, before the
multitude of the invaders, to render any protection to
their young. -
I have no doubt that many birds have acquired
instincts to combat or avoid the great danger to which
their young are exposed by the attacks of these and
other ants. Trogons, parrots, toucans, mot-mots, and
Ch. II.] EYES OF THE ECITONS. 23
many other birds build in holes of trees or in the
ground, and these, with their heads ever turned to the
only entrance, are in the best possible position to pick
off the Solitary parties when they first approach, and
thus prevent them from carrying to the main army
intelligence about the nest. Some of these birds, and
especially the toucans, have bills beautifully adapted for
picking up the ants before they reach the nest. Many
of the Smaller birds build on the branches of the bull's-
horn thorm, which is always thickly covered with small
stinging honey-eating ants, that would not allow the
Ecitons to ascend these trees.
Amongst the mammalia the opossums can convey
their young out of danger in their pouches, and the
females of many of the tree-rats and mice have a hard
callosity near the teats, to which the young cling with
their milk teeth, and can be dragged away by the
mother to a place of safety.
The eyes in the Ecitons are very small, in some of
the species imperfect, and in others entirely absent;
in this they differ greatly from the Pseudomyrma ants,
which hunt singly and which have the eyes greatly
developed. The imperfection of eyesight in the Ecitons
is an advantage to the community, and to their par-
ticular mode of hunting. It keeps them together, and
prevents individual ants from starting off alone after
objects that, if their eyesight were better, they might
discover at a distance ; the Ecitons and most other ants
follow each other by scent, and, I believe, they can
communicate the presence of danger, of booty, or other
intelligence, to a distance by the different intensity or
qualities of the odours given off. I one day saw a column
24 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
of Eciton hamata running along the foot of a nearly
perpendicular tramway cutting, the side of which was
about six feet high. At one point I noticed a sort of
assembly of about a dozen individuals that appeared in
consultation. Suddenly one ant left the conclave, and
ran with great speed up the perpendicular face of the
cutting without stopping. It was followed by others,
which, however, did not keep straight on like the first,
but ran a short way, then returned, then again followed
a little further than the first time. They were evidently
scenting the trail of the pioneer, and making it per-
manently recognisable. These ants followed the exact
line taken by the first one, although it was far out of
sight. Wherever it had made a slight detour they
did so likewise. I scraped with my knife a small
portion of the clay on the trail, and the ants were com-
pletely at fault for a time which way to go. Those
ascending and those descending stopped at the scraped
portion, and made short circuits until they hit the
scented trail again, when all their hesitation vanished,
and they ran up and down it with the greatest confi-
dence. On gaining the top of the cutting, the ants
entered some brushwood suitable for hunting. In a
very short space of time the information was commu-
nicated to the ants below, and a dense column rushed
up to search for their prey. The Ecitons are singular
amongst the ants in this respect, that they have no
fixed habitations, but move on from one place to
another, as they exhaust the hunting grounds around
them. I think Eciton hamata does not stay more than
four or five days in one place. I have sometimes come
across the migratory columns; they may easily be known
Ch. II.] TEMPORARY ANTS’-NEST.S. 25
by all the common workers moving in one direction,
many of them carrying the larvae and pupae carefully in
their jaws. Here and there one of the light-coloured
officers moves backwards and forwards directing the
columns. Such a column is of enormous length, and
contains many thousands if not millions of individuals.
I have sometimes followed them up for two or three
hundred yards without getting to the end.
They make their temporary habitations in hollow
trees, and sometimes underneath large fallen trunks that
offer suitable hollows. A nest that I came across in the
latter situation was open at one side. The ants were
clustered together in a dense mass, like a great Swarm of
bees, hanging from the roof, but reaching to the ground
below. Their innumerable long legs looked like brown
threads binding together the mass, which must have
been at least a cubic yard in bulk, and contained hun-
dreds of thousands of individuals, although many
columns were outside, some bringing in the pupae of
ants, others the legs and dissected bodies of various
insects. I was surprised to see in this living nest
tubular passages leading down to the centre of the mass,
kept open just as if it had been formed of inorganic
materials. Down these holes the ants who were bringing
in booty passed with their prey. I thrust a long stick
down to the centre of the cluster, and brought out
clinging to it many ants holding larvae and pupae, which
probably were kept warm by the crowding together of the
ants. Besides the common dark-coloured workers and
light-coloured officers, I saw here many still larger
individuals with enormous jaws. These they go about
holding wide open in a threatening manner, and I
26 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
found, contrary to my expectation, that they could give
a severe bite with them, and that it was difficult to
withdraw the jaws from the skin again.
One day when watching a small column of these ants,
I placed a little stone on one of them to secure it. The
next that approached, as soon as it discovered its situa-
tion, ran backwards in an agitated manner, and soon
communicated the intelligence to the others. They
rushed to the rescue, some bit at the stone and tried to
move it, others seized the prisoner by the legs, and
tugged with such force that I thought the legs would be
pulled off, but they persevered until they got the
captive free. I next covered one up with a piece of
clay, leaving only the ends of its antennae projecting.
It was soon discovered by its fellows, which set to work
immediately, and by biting off pieces of the clay, soon
liberated it. Another time I found a very few of them
passing along at intervals. I confined one of these under
a piece of clay, at a little distance from the line, with
his head projecting. Several ants passed it, but at last
one discovered it and tried to pull it out, but could not.
It immediately set off at a great rate, and I thought it
had deserted its comrade, but it had only gone for
assistance, for in a short time about a dozen ants came
hurrying up, evidently fully informed of the circum-
stances of the case, for they made directly for their
imprisoned comrade, and soon set him free. I do not
see how this action could be instinctive. It was sympa-
thetic help, such as man only among the higher mam-
malia shows. The excitement and ardour with which
they carried on their unflagging exertions for the rescue
of their comrade could not have been greater if they had
Ch. II.] REASONING IN ANTS. 27
been human beings, and this to meet a danger that can
be only of the rarest occurrence. Amongst the ants of
Central America I place the Eciton as the first in intel-
ligence, and as such at the head of the Articulata.
Wasps and bees come next, and then others of the
Hymenoptera. Between ants and the lower forms of
insects there is a greater difference in reasoning powers
than there is between man and the lowest mammalian.
A recent writer has augured that of all animals ants
approach nearest to man in their social condition.*
Perhaps if we could learn their wonderful language we
should find that even in their mental condition they
also rank next to humanity. & -
I shall relate two more instances of the use of a
reasoning faculty in these ants. I once saw a wide
column trying to pass along a crumbling, nearly perpen-
dicular, slope. They would have got very slowly over
it, and many of them would have fallen, but a number
having secured their hold, and reaching to each
other, remained stationary, and over them the main
column passed. Another time they were crossing a
water-course along a small branch, not thicker than a
goose-quill. They widened this natural bridge to three
times its width by a number of ants clinging to it and
to each other on each side, over which the column
passed three or four deep; whereas excepting for this
expedient they would have had to pass over in single
file, and treble the time would have been consumed.
Can it be contended that such insects are not able to
determine by reasoning powers which is the best way of
* Houzeau—Etudes sur les Facultés mentales des Animaux com-
parées à celles de l’Homme.
28 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. II.
doing a thing, or that their actions are not guided by
thought and reflection? This view is much strengthened
by the fact that the cerebral ganglia in ants are more
developed than in any other insect, and that in all the
Hymenoptera, at the head of which they stand, “they
are many times larger than in the less intelligent
Orders, such as beetles.”
The Hymenoptera standing at the head of the Arti-
culata, and the Mammalia at the head of the Vertebrata,
it is curious to mark how in zoological history the ap-
pearance and development of these two orders (culmi-
nating in the one in the Ants, and in the other in the
Primates) run parallel. The Hymenoptera and the
Mammalia both make their first appearance early in the
Secondary period, and it is not until the commencement
of the tertiary epoch that ants and monkeys appear upon
the scene. There the parallel ends: no one species of
ant has attained any great superiority above all its
fellows, whilst man is very far in advance of all the
other Primates. r
When we see these intelligent insects dwelling toge-
ther in orderly communities of many thousands of indi-
viduals, their social instincts developed to a high degree
of perfection, making their marches with the regularity
of disciplined troops, showing ingenuity in the crossing
of difficult places, assisting each in danger, defending
their nests at the risk of their own lives, communicating
information rapidly to a great distance, making a
regular division of work, the whole community taking
charge of the rearing of the young, and all imbued with
the stronger sense of industry, each individual labouring
* Darwin–Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 145.
Ch. II.] ATTAINMENT OF UTOPIA BY ANTS. 29.
not for itself alone but for all its fellows — we may
imagine that Sir Thomas More's description of
Tſtopia might have been applied with greater justice
to such a community than to any human Society. “But
in Utopia, where every man has a right to everything,
they do all know that if care is taken to keep the public
stores full, no private man can want anything; for
among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no
man is poor, nor in any necessity, and though no man
has anything, yet they are all rich ; for what can make
a man so rich as to lead a serene and cheerful life, free
from anxieties, neither apprehending want himself, nor
vexed with the endless complaints of his wife P. He is
not afraid of the misery of his children, nor is he con-
triving how to raise a portion for his daughters, but is
secure in this, that both he and his wife, his children
and grandchildren, to as many generations as he can
fancy, will all live both plentifully and happily.”
CHAPTER III.
Journey up River continued—Wild Pigs and Jaguar—Bungos—
Beach Machuca –Castillo—Capture of Castillo by Nelson—
India-rubber Trade—Rubber-men—Method of making India-
rubber—Congo Monkeys—Macaws — The Savallo River—En-
durance of the Boatmen—San Carlos—Interoceanic Canal—
Advantages of the Nicaraguan Route—The Rio Frio—Stories
about the Wild Indians—Indian Captive Children—Expeditions
up the Rio Frio—American River Steamboats.
AFTER breakfast we again continued our voyage up the
river, and passed the mouth of the San Carlos, another
large stream running down from the interior of Costa
Rica. Soon after we heard some wild pigs (Dicoteles
tajaçu) or Wari, as they are called by the natives,
striking their teeth together in the wood, and one of the
boatmen leaping on shore soon shot one, which he
brought on board after cutting out a gland on its back that
emits a musky odour, and we afterwards had it cooked
for our dinner. These Wari go in herds of from fifty to
one hundred. They are said to assist each other against
the attacks of the jaguar, but that wary animal is too in-
telligent for them. He sits quietly upon a branch of a
tree until the Wari come underneath; then jumping down
kills one by breaking its neck; leaps up into the tree
again and waits there until the herd depart, when he
comes down and feeds on the slaughtered Wari in
quietness. We shortly afterwards passed one of the
Ch. III.] BOAT JOURNEY CONTINUED. 31
large boats called bungos, that carry down to Greytown
the produce of the country and take up merchandise and
flour. This one was laden with cattle and india-rubber.
The bungos are flat-bottomed boats, about forty feet long
and nine feet wide. There is generally a little cabin,
roofed over at the stern, in which the wife of the captain
lives. The bungo is poled along by twelve bungo-men,
who have usually only one suit of clothes, which they do
not wear during the day but keep stowed away under the
cargo that they may be dry to put on at night; their
bronzed, glistening, naked bodies, as they ply their long
poles all together in unison, and chant some Spanish
boat-song, is one of the sights thatlingers in the memory
of the traveller up the San Juan. Our boatmen paddled
and poled until eleven at night, when we reached Ma-
chuca, a settlement consisting of a single house, just
below the rapids of the same name, seventy-seven miles
above Greytown.
We breakfasted at Machuca before starting next
morning, and I walked up round the rapids and met
the canoe above them. About five o’clock, after pad-
dling all day, we came in sight of Castillo, where there
is an old ruined Spanish fort perched on the top of a
hill overlooking the little town, which lies along the foot
of the steep hill hemmed in between it and the river, so
that there is only room for one narrow street. It was
near Castillo that Nelson lost his eye. He took the fort
by landing about half a mile lower down the river, and
dragging his guns round to a hill behind it by which it
was commanded. This hill is now cleared of timber and
covered with grass, supporting a few cows and a great
many goats. In front of the town run the rapids of Cas-
32 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. III.
tillo, which are difficult to ascend, and as there is no road
round them excepting through the town of Castillo, ad-
vantage has been taken of the situation to fix the custom
house here, at which are collected the duties on all articles
going up to the interior. The first view of Castillo when
coming up the river is a fine one. The fort-crowned hill
and the little town clinging to its foot form the centre of
the picture. The clear, Sparkling, dancing rapids on one
side contrast with the still, dark forest on the other, whilst
the whole is relieved by the bright green grassy hills in
the background. The first view of Castillo is the only
pleasant recollection I have carried away of the place.
The single street is narrow, dirty, and rugged, and when
the shades of evening begin to creep up, Swarms of mos-
quitoes issue forth to buzz and bite. -
I here made the acquaintance of Colonel McCrae, who
was largely concerned in the india-rubber trade. He
afterwards distinguished himself during the revolutionary
outbreak of 1869. He collected the rubber men and
came to the assistance of the government, helping
greatly to put down the insurrection. Originally a British
subject, but now a naturalized Nicaraguan, he has
filled with great credit for some time the post of deputy-
governor of Greytown, and I always heard him spoken
of with great esteem both by Nicaraguans and foreigners.
He showed to me pieces of cordage, pottery, and stone
implements brought down by the rubber men from the
wild Indians of the Rio Frio. Castillo is one of the centres
of the rubber trade. Parties of men are here fitted out
with canoes and provisions, and proceed up the rivers,
far into the uninhabitable forests of the Atlantic slope.
They remain for several months away, and are expected
Ch. III.] & INDIA-RUBBER. 33
to bring the rubber they obtain to the merchants who
have fitted them out, but very many prove faithless, and
carry off their produce to other towns, where they have
no difficulty in finding purchasers. Notwithstanding
these losses, the merchants engaged in the rubber trade
have done well; its steadily increasing value during the
last few years having made the business a highly re-
Imunerative one. According to the information sup-
plied to me at Greytown by Mr. Paton, the exports of
rubber from that port had increased from 401,475 lbs.,
valued at 112,413 dollars, in 1867, to 754,886 lbs., valued
at 226,465 dollars, in 1871. India rubber was well
known to the ancient inhabitants of Central America.
Before the Spanish conquest the Mexicans played with
balls made from it, and it still bears its Aztec name of
Ulli, from which the Spaniards call the collectors of it
Ulleros. It is obtained from quite a different tree, and
prepared in a different manner, from the rubber of the
Amazons. The latter is taken from the Siphonia elastica,
a Euphorbiaceous tree; but in Central America the tree
that yields it is a specimen of wild fig (Castilloa elastica).
It is easily known by its large leaves, and I saw several
whilst ascending the river. When the collectors find an
untapped one in the forest, they first make a ladder out
of the lianas or “vejuccos” that hang from every tree;
this they do by tying short pieces of wood across them
with Small lianas, many of which are as tough as cord.
They then proceed to score the bark, with cuts which
extend nearly round the tree like the letter W, the point
being downwards. A cut like this is made about every
three feet all the way up the trunk. The milk will all
run out of a tree in about an hour after it is cut, and is
I)
34 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA, [Ch. HII.
collected into a large tin bottle made flat on one side and
furnished with straps to fix on to a man’s back. A de-
coction is made from another liana (Calonyction speci-
osum), and this on being added to the milk, in the pro-
portion of one pint to a gallon, coagulates it to rubber,
which is made into round flat cakes. A large tree, five
feet in diameter, will yield when first cut about twenty
gallons of milk, each gallon of which makes two and a
half pounds of rubber. I was told that the tree recovers
from the wounds and may be cut again after the lapse of
a few months; but several that I saw were killed through
the large Harlequin beetle (Acrocinus longimanus) laying
its eggs in the cuts, and the grubs that are hatched boring
great holes all through the trunk. When these grubs
are at work you can hear their rasping by standing at
the bottom of the tree, and the wood-dust thrown out of
their burrows accumulates in heaps on the ground below.
The Government attempts no supervision of the forests:
anyone may cut the trees, and great destruction is going
on amongst them through the young ones being tapped
as well as the full-grown ones. The tree grows very
quickly, and plantations of it might easily be made, which
would in the course of ten or twelve years become highly
remunerative. *
We left Castillo at daylight the next morning, and
continued our journey up the river. There was but
little change in its banks. We saw many tall graceful
palms and tree ferns, but most of the trees were dicoty-
ledons. Amongst these the mahogany (Swietonia maho-
gani) and the cedar (Cedrela odorata) are now rare near
the river, but a few trees were pointed out to me. High
up in one tree, underneath which we passed, were seated
Ch. III.] REACH THE LAKE. 35
Some of the black Congo monkeys (Mycetes palliatus)
which at times, especially before rain and at nightfall,
make a fearful howling, though not so loud as the
Brazilian species. Screaming macaws, in their gorgeous
livery of blue, yellow, and scarlet, occasionally flew over-
head, and tanagers and toucans were not uncommon.
Twelve miles above Castillo we reached the mouth of
the Savallo, and stayed at a house there to breakfast, the
owner, a German, giving us roast wari, fowls, and eggs.
He told me that there was a hot spring up the Savallo,
but I had not time to go and see it. Above Savallo the
San Juan is deep and sluggish, the banks low and
swampy. The large palm, so common in the delta of
the river, here reappeared with its large coarse leaves
twenty feet in length, springing from near the ground.
Our boatmen continued to paddle all day, and as
night approached redoubled their exertions, singing to
the stroke of their paddles. I was astonished at their
endurance. They kept on until eleven o’clock at night,
when we reached San Carlos, having accomplished about
thirty-five miles during the day against the current.
San Carlos is at the head of the river, where it issues
from the great Lake of Nicaragua, about one hundred
and twenty miles from Greytown. The mean level of
the waters of the lake, according to the survey of Colonel
O. W. Childs, in 1851, is 107% feet, so that the river
falls on an average a little less than one foot per mile.
The height of the lowest pass between the lake and the
Bacific is said to be twenty-six feet above the lake,
therefore at that point the highest elevation between the
two oceans is only about 133 feet; but even allowing that
an error of a few feet may be discovered when a thorough
I) 2
36 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. III.
Survey is made across from sea to sea, there can be no
doubt that at this point occurs the lowest pass between
the Atlantic and the Pacific in Central America. This
fact, and the immense natural reservoir of water near the
head of the navigation, point out this route as a practi-
cable one for a ship canal between the two oceans.
Instead of cutting a canal from the head of the delta.
of the San Juan to the sea, as has been proposed, the
Colorado branch might be straightened, and dredged to
the required depth. Higher up, the Torre Castillo and
Machuca Rapids form natural dams across the river.
These might be raised, locks formed round them, and the
water deepened by dredging between them. In this way
the great expense of cutting a canal, and the fearful
mortality that always arises amongst the labourers when
excavations are made in the virgin soil of the tropics,
especially in marshy lands, would be greatly lessened be-
tween the lake and the Atlantic. Another great ad-
vantage would be that the deepening of the river would
be effected by steam power, so that it would not be re-
quired to bring such a multitude of labourers to the
isthmus as would be necessary if a canal were cut from
the river; the whole track, morever, passes through
virgin forests rich in inexhaustible supplies of fuel.
San Carlos is a small town at the foot of the great
lake, where it empties its waters into the San Juan
river, its only outlet to the ocean. On a hill behind the
town, and commanding the entrance to the river, are the
ruins of a once strong fort built by the Spaniards, the
crumbling walls now green with the delicate fronds of a
maidenhair fern (Adiantum). The little town consists of
a single rugged street leading up from the lake. The
Ch. III.] WILD INDIANS. 37
houses are mostly palm-thatched huts, with the bare
earth floors seldom or never swept. The people are of
mixed origin, Indian, Spanish, and Negro, the Indian
element predominating. Two or three better built
stores, and the quarters of the military governor, redeem
the place from an appearance of utter squalor. Behind
the town there are a few small clearings in the forest,
where maize is grown. Some orange, banana, and plan-
tain trees exhaust the list of the productions of San
Carlos, which is supported by being a calling place for
all vessels proceeding up and down the river, and by the
Ulleros or rubber-men who start from it for expeditions
up the Rio Frio and other rivers. We found there two
men who had just been brought down the Rio Frio
by their companions, greatly injured by the lianas, up
which they had made their ladder to ascend one of the
rubber trees, having broken and precipitated them to the
ground. I learnt that this was a very unusual accident,
the lianas generally being very tough and strong, like
great cables.
Most fabulous stories have been told about the Rio
Frio and its inhabitants; stories of great cities, golden
ornaments, and light-haired people; it may be useful,
therefore, to relate what is known about it.
The Rio Frio comes down from the interior of Costa
Rica, and joins the San Juan, near where the latter
issues from the lake. The banks of its upper waters are
inhabited by a race of Indians who have never been
subjected by the Spaniards, and about whom very little
is known. They are called Guatuses, and have been
said to have red or light-coloured hair and European
features, to account for which various ingenious theories
38 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. III.
have been advanced; but, unfortunately for these specula-
tions, Some children, and even adults, have been captured
and brought down the river by the Ulleros, and all these
have the usual features and coarse black hair of the
Indians. One little child that Dr. Seemann and I saw
at San Carlos, in 1870, had a few brownish hairs amongst
the great mass of black ones; but this character may be
found amongst many of the indigenes, and may result
from a very slight admixture of foreign blood. I have
seen altogether five children from the Rio Frio, and a
boy about sixteen years of age, and they had all the
common Indian features and hair; though it struck me
that they appeared rather more intelligent than the
generality of Indians. Besides these, an adult woman
was captured by the rubber-men and brought down to
Castillo, and I was told by several who had seen her that
she did not differ in any way from the usual Indian
type. -8 .
The Guatuse (pronounced Watüsa) is an animal about
the size of a hare, very common in Central America, and
good eating. It has reddish-brown fur, and the usual
explanation of the Nicaraguans is that the Indians of the
Rio Frio were called “Guatuses” because they had red
hair. It is very common to find the Indian tribes of
America called after different wild animals, and my own
opinion is that the origin of the fable about the red hair
was a theory to explain why they were called Guatuses;
for the natives of Nicaragua, and of parts much nearer
home, are fond of giving fanciful explanations of the
names of places and things: thus, I have been assured
by an intelligent and educated Nicaraguan, that Guate-
Imala was so called by the Spaniards because they found
Ch. III.] - TREATMENT OF INDIANS. 39.
the guaté (a kind of gnat) was in that country bad,
hence “guaté malo,” “bad guaté,”—whereas every
student of Mexican history knows that the name was the
Spanish attempt to pronounce the old Aztec one of
Quauhtemallan, which meant the land of the Eagle. I
shall have other occasions, in the course of my narrative,
to show how careful a traveller in Central America must
be not to accept the explanations of the natives of the
names of places and things.
The first people who ascended the Rio Frio were
attacked by the Indians, who killed several with their
arrows. Exaggerated opinions of their ferocity and
courage were in consequence a long time prevalent, and
the river remained unknown and unexplored, and pro-
bably would have done so to the present day, if it had
not been for the rubber-men. When the trade in indian
rubber became fully developed, the trees in the more
accessible parts of the forest were soon exhausted, and
the collectors were obliged to penetrate farther and
farther back into the untrodden wilds of the Atlantic
slope. Some more adventurous than others ascended
the Rio Frio, and being well provided with firearms,
which they mercilessly used, they were able to defy the
poor Indians, armed only with spears and bows and
arrows, and to drive them back into the woods. The
first Ulleros who ascended the river were so successful
in finding rubber, that various other parties were
organised, and now an ascent of the Rio Frio from San
Carlos is of common occurrence. The poor Indians are
now in such dread of firearms, that on the first appear-
ance of a boat coming up the river they desert their
houses and run into the woods for shelter. The Ulleros
40 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. III.
rush on shore and seize everything that the poor fugitives
may have left behind them ; but in some cases they have
not been able to carry off their children, and these have
been brought down in triumph to San Carlos. Their
excuse for carrying off the children is that they may be
baptized and made Christians; and I am sorry to say that
this shameful treatment of the poor Indians is coun-
tenanced and connived at by the authorities. I was
told of one commandante at San Carlos who had manned
some canoes and proceeded up the river as far as the
plantain grounds of the Indians, loaded his boats with
the plantains, and brought them down to San Carlos,
where the people appear to be too indolent to grow them
themselves. All who have ascended the river speak of
the great quantities of plantains that the Guatuses grow,
and this fruit, and the abundant fish of the river, form
their principal food. Their houses are large sheds open
at the sides, and thatched with the “suiti’ palm. As is
often the case amongst the Indians, several families live
in one house. The floor is kept well cleaned. I was
amused with a lady in San Carlos who, in describing their
well-kept houses to Dr. Seemann and myself, pointed
to her own unswept and littered earth floor and
said, “They keep their houses very, very clean—as
clean as this.” The lad and the woman who were
captured and brought down the Rio Frio both
ran away—the one from San Carlos, the other from
Castillo; but neither was able to get back to their
country, on account of the swamps and rivers in their
way, and after wandering about the woods for some time
were recaptured. I saw the lad soon after he was taken
the Second time. He had been a month in the woods,
Ch. III.] STONE-HATCHETS. 41
living on roots and fruits, and had nearly died from star-
vation. He had an intelligent, sharp, and independent
look about him, and kept continually talking in his own
language, apparently surprised that the people around
him did not understand what he was saying. He was
taken to Castillo, and met there the woman who had
been captured a year before, and had learnt to speak a
little Spanish. Through her as an interpreter, he tried
to get permission to return to the Rio Frio, saying that
if they would let him go he would come back and bring
his father and mother with him; but this simple artifice
of the poor boy was, of course, ineffectual. He was
afterwards taken to Granada, for the purpose, they said,
of being educated, that he might become the means of
opening up communication with his tribe.
The rubber-men bring down many little articles that
they pillage from the Indians. They consist of cordage,
made from the fibre of Bromeliaceous plants, bone hooks,
and stone implements. Amongst the latter, I was fortu-
nate enough to obtain a rude stone hatchet, Set in a
stone-cut wooden handle: it was firmly fixed in a hole
made in the thick end of the handle. It is a singular
fact, and one showing the persistence of particular ways
of doing things through long ages amongst people be-
longing to the same race that, in the ancient Mexican,
Uxmal, and Palenque picture-writings, bronze axes are
represented fixed in this identical manner in holes at the
thick ends of the handles,
We slept on board one of the steamers of the Ameri-
can Transit Company. It was too dark when we arrived
at San Carlos to see anything that night of the great
lake, but we heard the waves breaking on the beach like
42 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. III.
a sea-shore, and from further away came that moaning
sound that has from the earliest ages of history con-
nected the idea of the sea with sorrow and sadness.”
The steamer we stayed in was one of four river-boats
belonging to the Transit Company, which was at this
time in difficulties, and ultimately the boats were sold;
part of them being bought by Mr. Hollenbeck, and
used by the navigation company which he established.
These steamers are built expressly for shallow rivers, and
are very different structures from anything we see in
England. The bottom is made quite flat, and divided
into compartments; the first deck being only about
cighteen inches above the water, from which it is
divided by no bulwarks or other protection. Upon this
deck are placed the cargo and the driving machinery. A
vertical boiler is fixed at the bow, and two horizontal
engines, driving a large paddle-wheel, at the stern. The
Second deck is for passengers, and is raised on light
wooden pillars braced with iron rods about seven feet
above the first. Above this is another deck, on which
are the cabins of the officers and the steering apparatus.
The appearance of such a structure is more like that of a
house than a boat. The one we were in, the Panalog/a,
draws only three feet of water, when laden with 400
passengers and twenty tons of cargo. -
* “There is sorrow on the sea ; it cannot be quiet.”—Jeremiah
xlix. 23.
CHAPTER IV.
The Lake of Nicaragua–Ometepec.—Becalmed on the Lake—White
Cygnets—Reach San Ubaldo—Ride across the Plains—Vegeta-
tion of the Plains—Armadillo Savannahs—Jicara Trees—Jicara,
Bowls—Origin of Gourd-shaped Pottery—Coyotes—Mule-breed-
ing—Reach Acoyapo–Festa—Cross High Range—Esquipula—
The Rio Mico—Supposed Statues Onits banks—Pital—Cultivation
of Maize—Its use from the earliest times in America—Separa-
tion of the Maize-eating from the Mandioca-eating Indigenes of
America—Tortillas–Sugar-making—Enter the Forest of the
Atlantic Slope—Vegetation of the Forest—Muddy Roads—Arrive
at Santo Domingo.
As daylight broke next morning, I was up, anxious to
see the great lake about which I had heard so much.
To the north-west a great sheet of quiet water extended
as far as the eye could reach, with islands here and
there, and—the central figure in every view of the lake
—the great conical peak of Ometépec towered up, 5,050
feet above the Sea, and 4,922 feet above the surface of the
lake. To the left, in the dim distance, were the cloud-
capped mountains of Costa Rica; to the right, nearer at
hand, low hills and ranges covered with dark forests.
The lake is too large to be called beautiful, and its vast
extent and the mere glimpses of its limits and cloud-
capped peaks appeal to the imagination rather than to
the eye. At this end of the lake the water is shallow,
probably filled up by the mud brought down by the Rio
Frio.
44 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
We had still a voyage of sixty miles before us up the
lake, and this was to be accomplished not by paddling,
but by Sailing; so we now rigged two light masts, and
Soon after seven o’clock sailed slowly away from San
Carlos before a light breeze, which in an hour's time
freshened and carried us along at the rate of about six
miles an hour. The Sun rose higher and higher; the day
waxed hotter and hotter. About noon the wind failed
us again, and the Sun right overhead, in a clear piti-
less sky, scorched us with its rays, while our boat lay
like a log upon the water, the pitch melting in the seams
with the heat. The surface of the lake was motionless,
except a gentle heaving. We were almost broiled with
the stifling heat, but at last saw a ripple on the water
coming up from the north-east, some parts bristling
with pointed flecks; soon the breeze reached us, and our
torment was over; our sails, no more idly flapping, filled
out before the wind; the canoe dashed through the
rising waves; our drooping spirits revived, and there was
an opening out of provisions, and life again in the dead.
The breeze continued all the afternoon, and at dark we
were off the islands of Nancital, having been all day
within a few miles of the north-eastern side of the lake,
the banks of which are everywhere clothed with dark
gloomy-looking forests. One of the islands was a
favourite sleeping-place for the white egrets. From all
sides they were flying across the lake towards it; and as
night set in, the trees and bushes by the water-side were
full of them, looking like great white flowers amongst
the dark green foliage. Flocks of muscovy and whistling
ducks also flew over to their evening feeding-places.
Great masses of a floating plant, shaped like a cabbage,
Ch. IV.] ARRIVAL AT SAN UBALDO. 45
were abundant on the lake, and on these the white
ogrets and other wading birds often alighted. The boat-
men told me—and the story is likely enough to be true—
that the alligators, floating about like logs, with their
eyes above the water, watch these birds, and, moving
quietly up until within a few yards of them, sink down
below the surface, come up underneath them, catch them.
by the leg, and drag them under water. Besides the
alligators, large freshwater sharks appear to be common
in the lake. Sometimes, when in shallow water, we saw
a pointed billow rapidly moving away from the boat,
produced by some large fish below, and I was told it was
a shark.
After dark the wind failed us again, and we got slowly
along, but finally reached our port, San Ubaldo, about
ten o'clock, and found there an officer of the mining
company, living in a small thatched hut, stationed there
to send on the machinery and other goods that arrived
for the mines. A large tiled store had also just been
built by the owner of the estate there, Don Gregorio
Quadra, under the verandah of which I hung my ham-
mock for the night. Mules were waiting at San Ubaldo
for us, and early next morning we set off, with our luggage
on pack mules. We crossed some rocky low hills, with
scanty vegetation, and, after passing the cattle hacienda
of San José, reached the plains of the same name, about
two leagues in width, now dry and dusty, but in the wet
season forming a great slough of water and tenacious
mud, through which the mules have to Wade and plunge.
In the midst of these plains there are some rocky
knolls, like islands, on which grow spiny cactuses, low
leathery-leaved trees, 'slender, spiny palms, with plum-
46 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
like fruit, prickly acacias, and thorny bromelias. This
spiny character of vegetation seems to be charac-
teristic of dry rocky places and tracts of country liable
to great drought. Probably it is as a protection from
herbivorous animals, to prevent them browsing upon the
twigs and small branches when herbaceous vegetation is
dried up. Small armadillos abound near these rocky
knolls, and are said to feed on ants and other insects.
We had a long chase after one, which we observed some
distance from the rock, over the cracked and dried-up
plain : though it could not run very fast, it doubled
quickly, and the rough cracked ground made odds in its
favour ; but it was ultimately secured. Pigeons, brown
coloured, of various sizes, from that of a thrush to that of
a common dove, were numerous and very tame. One of
the smallest species alights and seeks about in the streets
of small towns for seeds, like a sparrow, and more bold
than that bird, for it is not molested by the children—
rather, however, from indolence than from any lack of
the element of cruelty in their dispositions. After
crossing the plains we rode over undulating hills, here
called savannahs, with patches of forest on the rising
ground, and small plains on which grows the ternate-leaved
jicara (pronounced hickory), a tree about as large as an
apple-tree, with fruit of the size, shape, and appearance
of a large green Orange, but growing on the trunk and
branches, not amongst the leaves. The outside of the
fruit is a hard thin shell, packed full of seeds in a kind
of dry pulp, on which are fed fowls, and even horses and
cattle in the dry season; the latter are said sometimes to
choke themselves with the fruit, whilst trying to eat it.
Of the bruised seeds is also made a cooling drink, much
Ch. IV.] FORMS OF INDIAN POTTERY. 47
used in Nicaragua. The jicara trees grow apart at equal
distances, as if planted by man. The hard thin shell of
the fruit, carved in various patterns on the outside, is
made into cups and drinking-vessels by the natives, who
also cultivate other species of jicara, with round
fruits, as large as a man’s head, from which the larger
drinking-bowls are made. In the smaller jicaras choco-
late is always made and served in Central America, and,
being rounded at the bottom, little stands are made to
set them in ; these are sometimes shaped like egg-cups,
Sometimes like toy washhand-stands. In making their
earthenware vessels, the Indians up to this day follow
this natural form, and their water-jars and bowls are
made rounded at the bottom, requiring stands to keep
them upright.
The meals of Montezuma were served on thick
cushions or pillows. This was probably on account of
the rounded bases of the bowls and dishes used. The
gourd forms of bowls probably often originated in the
clay having been moulded over gourds which were
burnt out in the baking process. It is said that in some
of the Southern states the kilns in which the ancient
pottery was baked have been found, and in some the
half-baked ware remained, retaining the rinds of the
gourds over which they had been moulded. Afterwards,
when the potter learned to make bowls without the
aid of gourds, he still retained the shape of his ancient
pattern.
The name, too, like the form, has had a wonderful
vitality. It is the “xicalli” of the ancient Aztecs,
changed to “jicara " by the Spaniards, by which they
mean a chocolate-cup ; and even in Italy a modification
48 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
of the same word may be heard, a tea-cup being called a
chicchera. -
On the top of one of the hills we just got a glimpse of
a small pack of wolves, or coyotes, as they are called,
from the Aztec coyotl. They are smaller than the
European wolf, and are cunning, like a fox, but hunt in
packs. They looked down at us from the ridge of the
hill for a few moments, then trotted off down the other
side. Their howlings may often be heard in the early
morning. -
Cattle, horses, and mules are bred on these plains.
Male asses are kept at some of the haciendas. They are
not allowed to mix with any of their own kind, and are
well fed and in good condition; but they are only of
small size, and the breed of mules might be greatly
improved by the introduction of larger asses.
The vegetation on the plains was rapidly drying up.
Many of the trees shed their leaves in the dry season,
just as they do with us in autumn. The barrenness of
the landscape is relieved in March by several kinds of
trees bursting into flower when they have shed their
leaves, and presenting great domes of brilliant colour—
some pink, others red, blue, yellow, or white, like great
single-coloured bouquets. One looked like a gigantic
rhododendron, with bunches of large pink flowers. The
yellow-flowered ones belong to wild cotton-trees, from
the pods of which the natives gather cotton to stuff
pillows, &c. About one o'clock we reached rather a
large river, and after crossing it came in sight of the
town of Acoyapo, one of the principal towns of the pro-
vince of Chontales. We stayed and had dinner with
Senhor Don Dolores Bermudez, a Nicaraguan gentleman
Ch. IV.] COCK-FIGHTING. 49
who had been educated in the States, and spoke
English fluently. He very kindly took me over the
town, and I always found him ready to give me
information respecting the antiquities and natural pro-
ducts of the country. Acoyapo and the district around
it contains about two thousand inhabitants. The store-
keepers, lawyers, and hacienderos are of Spanish and
mixed descent. Amongst the lower classes there is much
Indian and some negro blood; but there are many pure
Indians scattered through the district, living near the
rivers and brooks, and growing patches of maize and
beans. In the centre of the town is a large square or
plaza, with a stucco-fronted church occupying one side,
and the principal stores and houses ranging around the
other three sides. A couple of coco-palms grow in
front of the church, but do not thrive like those near the
sea-coast. It was Saturday, the 22nd of February, when
we arrived; this was a great feast-day, or festa, at
Acoyapo, and the town was full of country people, who
were amusing themselves with horse-races, cock-fights,
and drinking aguardiente. Their mode of cock-fighting
is very cruel, as the cocks are armed with long sickle-
shaped lancets, tied on to their natural spurs, with
which they give each other fearful gashes and wounds.
All classes of Nicaraguans are fond of this amuse-
ment; in nearly every house a cock will be found, tied
up in a corner by the leg, but treated otherwise like One
of the family. The priests are generally great abettors
of the practice, which forms the usual amusement of
the towns on Sunday afternoons. I have heard many
stories of the padres after service hurrying off to the
cock-pit with a cock under each arm. Bets are made
• E
50 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. IV.
on every fight, and much money is lost and won over
the sport. -
Like most of the Nicaraguan towns, Acoyapo appears
to have been an Indian city before the Spanish con-
quest. The name is Indian, and in the plaza Señor Ber-
mudez pointed out to me some flat bared rock surfaces,
on which were engraved circles and various straight and
curved characters, covering the whole face of the rock.
Some rude portions of stone statues that have been
found in the neighbourhood are also preserved in the
town. The Spaniards called the town San Sebastian ;
but the more ancient name is likely to prevail, notwith-
standing that in all official documents the Spanish one is
used. Acoyapo is a grazing district, and there are some
large cattle haciendas, especially towards the lake. The
town suffers from fever owing to the neighbouring swamp.
Much of the land around is very fertile; but little of it
is cultivated, as the people are indolent, and content if
they make a bare livelihood. We left Acoyapo about
three o'clock: our road lay up the river, which we crossed
three times. Excepting near the river, the country was
very thinly timbered ; and it was pleasant, after riding
across the open plains, exposed to the hot rays of the
sun, to reach the shady banks of the stream, by which
grew many high thick-foliaged trees, with lianas hang-
ing from them, and bromelias, orchids, ferns, and many
other epiphytes perched on their branches. At these
spots, too, were various beautiful birds, amongst which
the Sisitote, a fine black and Orange songster, and a
trogon (Trogon melanocephalus, Gould), were the most
conspicuous.
We reached and crossed a high range, from the
Ch. IV.] DIFFICULT MARCH. 51
summit of which we had a splendid view: behind, over
the plains and Savannahs we had crossed, to the great
lake, with its islands and peaked hills; and beyond the
dark dim mountains of Costa Rica, amongst which dwell
the Indians of the Rio Frio and other little-known
tribes. Before us were spread out well-grassed
savannahs, thickly timbered, excepting where dark
winding lines of trees or light green thickets of bamboos
marked the course of rivers or mountain brooks. Here
and there were sparingly dotted thatched huts, in which
dwelt the owners of the cattle, mules, and horses feed-
ing on the meadows. Far in the distance the view was
bounded by a line of dark, nearly black-looking forest,
which, there commencing, extends unbroken to the
Atlantic. Near its edge, a seven-peaked range marked
the neighbourhood of Libertad—the beginning of the
gold-mining district. Descending the slope of the
range, we found the Savannahs on its eastern side much
more moist than those to the westward of it; and as we
proceeded, the humidity of the ground increased, and
the crossings of some of the valleys and Swamps were
difficult for the mules. The dry season had set in, and
these places were rapidly drying up ; but in many it had
just reached that stage when the mud was most tena-
cious; at one very bad crossing, called an “estero,” my
mule fell, with my leg underneath him, pinning me in
the mud. The poor beast was exhausted, and would not
move. Night had set in—it was quite dark, and I had
lagged some distance behind my companions: fortu-
nately they heard my shouts, and, Soon returning,
extricated me from my awkward predicament. With-
out further mishap we reached Esquipula, a village
E 2
52 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
inhabited mostly by half-breeds, at about eight o'clock,
and securing our hammocks for the night in a small
thatched house belonging to the mining company, who
kept many of their draught bullocks at this place on
account of the excellent pasture around. The village of
IEsquipula is built near the river Mico, which, rising in
the forest-clad ranges to the eastward, runs for several
miles through the Savannahs, then again enters the
forest and flows into the Atlantic at Blewfields, a broad
and deep river. This river must have had at one time
a large Indian population, dwelling in settled towns
near its banks. Their burial-places, marked with great
heaps of stones, are frequent, and pieces of pottery,
broken stone statues and pedestals are often met with.
Near ‘Esquipula there are some artificial-looking
mounds, with great stones set round them ; in fact,
this and another village, a few miles to the south, called
San Tomas, are, I believe, both built on the sites of old
Indian towns. The Indians of the Rio Mico gave the
Spaniards some trouble on their first settlement of the
country. About two leagues from Acoyapo, the site of
a small town was pointed out to me, now covered with
low trees and brushwood. Here the Spaniards were
attacked in the night-time by the Rio Mico Indians, and
all of them killed, excepting the young women, who
were carried off into captivity, and the place has ever
since lain desolate.
Many extravagant stories have been told of the
great statues that are said to have been seen on the
banks of the Mico, much lower down the river than
where we crossed it ; but M. Etienne, of Libertad, who
descended it to Blewfields, and some Ulleros of San
Ch. IV.] SAVANNAHS AND FOREST. 53
Tomas, who had frequently been down it after Indian
rubber, assured me that the reported statues were
merely rude carvings of faces and animals on the rocks.
They appear to be similar to what are found on many
rivers running into the Caribbean Sea, and to those
which were examined by Schomburgk on the rocks of
the Orinoco and Essequibo; as others like them, of
undoubted Carib workmanship, have been found in the
Virgin Islands, it is possible that they are all the work
of that once-powerful race, and not of the settled agri-
cultural and statue-making Indians of the western part
of the continent.
We started from Esquipula early next morning, and
crossed low thinly-timbered hills and savannahs to
Pital, a scattered settlement of many small thatched
houses, close to the borders of the great forest, on the
edge of which were clearings made for growing maize,
which is cultivated entirely on burnt forest land. At
Some parts they had already commenced cutting down
trees for fresh clearings; these would be burnt in April,
and the maize sown the following month, in the usual
primitive way, just as it was sown in Mexico before and
at the Spanish conquest. In commencing a clearing,
the brushwood is first cut close to the ground, as it
would be difficult to do so after the large trees are
felled. The big timber is then cut down, and in April
it is set fire to. All the small wood and leaves burn
well; but most of the large trunks are left, and many of
the branches. Most of the latter are cut up to form a
fence round the clearing, this at Pital and Esquipula
being made very close and high to keep out deer. In
May, the maize is sown ; the Sower makes little holes
54 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
with a pointed stick, a few feet apart, into each of
which he drops two or three grains, and covers them
with his foot. In a few days the green leaves shoot up,
and grow very quickly. Numerous wild plants also
spring up, and in June these are weeded out; the success
of the crop greatly depending upon the thoroughness
with which this is done. In July each plant has pro-
duced two or three ears; but before the grain is set these
are pulled off, excepting one, as if more are left they do
not mature well. The young ears are boiled whole, and
make a tender and much-esteemed vegetable. They
are called at this stage “chilote,” from the Aztec
xilotl ; and the ancient Mexicans in their eighth
month, which began on the 16th July, made a great
festival, called the feast of Xilonen. The poor Indians
now have often reason to rejoice when this stage is
reached, as their stores of corn are generally exhausted
before then, and the “chilote ” is the first fruits of the
new crop. In the beginning of August the grains are
fully formed, though still tender and white; and it
is eaten as green corn, now called “elote.” In Sep-
tember the maize is ripe, and is gathered when dry,
and stowed away, generally over the rooms of the
natives. A second crop is often sown in December.
Maize is very prolific, bearing a hundred fold, and
ripening in April. From the most ancient times, maize
has been the principal food of the inhabitants of the
western side of tropical America. On the coast of Peru,
Darwin found heads of it,” along with eighteen recent
species of marine shells, in a raised beach eighty-five feet
* “Geological Observations in South America, 1846,” p. 49 ; and
“...Animals and Plants under Domestication,” vol. i. p. 320.
Ch. IV.] |MAIZE AND MANDIOCA, EATERS. 55
above the level of the sea; and in the same country it
has been found in tombs apparently more ancient than
the times of the Incas.” In Mexico it was known from
the earliest times of which we have any record, in the
picture writings of the Toltecs; and that ancient people
carried it with them in all their wanderings. In
Central America the stone grinders, with which they
bruised it down, are almost invariably found in the ancient
graves, having been buried with the ashes of the dead,
as an indispensable article for their outfit to another
world. When Florida and Louisiana were first dis-
covered, the native Indian tribes all cultivated maize as
their staple food; and throughout Yucatan, Mexico, and
all the western side of Central America, and through
Peru to Chili, it was, and still is, the main sustenance of
the Indians. The people that cultivated it were all more
or less advanced in civilization; they were settled in towns;
their traders travelled from one country to another with
their wares; they were of a docile and tractable dis-
position, easily frightened into submission. It is likely
that these maize-eating peoples belonged to closely affi-
liated races. In the West India Islands they occupied
most of Cuba and Hayti; but from Porto Rico south-
wards the islands were peopled by the warlike Caribs,
who harassed the more civilised tribes to the north. From
Cape Gracias à Dios southward, the eastern coast of
America was peopled on its first discovery by much
ruder tribes, who did not grow maize, but made bread
from the roots of the mandioca (Manihot aipim); and
still in British Guiana, on the Lower Amazon, and in
anorth-eastern Brazil, farina made from the roots of the
* Von Tschudi, “Travels in Peru,” English edition, p. 177.
56, . THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
mandioca is the staple food. Maize has been introduced
by the Portuguese, but it has no native name, and is
used mostly for feeding cattle and fowls, scarcely at all for
the food of the people. This fundamental difference in
the food of the indigenes points to a very early separa-
tion between the peoples. In the West Indian Islands,
Cuba and Hayti seem to have been peopled from
Yucatan, and Florida, Porto Rico, and all the islands
to the southwards, from Venezuela.
In Central America, the bread made from the maize
is prepared at the present day exactly as it was in
ancient Mexico. The grain is first of all boiled along
with wood ashes or a little lime: the alkali loosens the
outer skin of the grain, and this is rubbed off with the
hands in running water, a little of it at a time, placed
upon a slightly concave stone, called a metlate, from the
Aztec metlatl, on which it is rubbed with another stone
shaped like a rolling-pin. A little water is thrown on
it as it is bruised, and it is thus formed into paste. A
ball of the paste is taken and flattened out between the
hands into a cake about ten inches diameter and three-
sixteenths of an inch thick, which is baked on a slightly
concave earthenware pan. The cakes so made are
called tortillas, and are very nutritious. When travelling,
I preferred them myself to bread made from wheaten
flour. When well made and eaten warm, they are very
palatable.
There are a few small sugar plantations near Pital.
The juice is pressed out of the canes by rude wooden
rollers set upright in threes, the centre one driving the
one on each side of it by projecting cogs. The whole
are set in motion by oxen travelling round the same as
Ch. IV.] THE GREAT FOREST. 57
in a thrashing-mill. The ungreased axles of the rollers,
Squeaking and Screeching like a score of tormented pigs,
generally inform the traveller of their vicinity long before
he reaches them. The juice is boiled, and an impure
Sugar made from it. I do not think that sugar-cane was
known to the ancient inhabitants of this country : it is
not mentioned by the historians of the conquest of Mexico
and Peru, nor has it, like maize and cacao, any native
Ila, Illé.
As soon as we passed Pital we entered the great forest,
the black margin of which we had seen for many miles,
that extends from this point to the Atlantic. At first
the road lay through small trees and brushwood, a second
growth that had sprung up where the original forest had
been cut for maize plantations; but after passing a brook
bordered by numerous plants of the pita, from which a
fine fibre is obtained, and which gives its name to Pital,
we entered the primeval forest. On each side of the
road great trees towered up, carrying their crowns
out of sight amongst a canopy of foliage, winding
round everything, and with lianas hanging from nearly
every bough, and passing from tree to tree, entan-
gling the giants in a great network of coiling cables,
like another Samson, the simile being strengthened by the
fact that many of the trees are really strangled in the
winding folds. Sometimes a tree appears covered with
beautiful flowers, which do not belong to it, but to one of
the lianas that twines through its branches and sends
down great ropes like stems to the ground. Climbing
ferns and vanilla cling to the trunks, and a thousand
epiphytes perch themselves on the branches. Amongst
these are large arums that send down aerial roots, tough
58 THE NATURALIST IN. NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
#
and strong, and universally used instead of cordage by the
natives. Amongst the undergrowth several small species
of palms, varying in height from two to fifteen feet, are
common; and now and then magnificent tree ferns, sending
off their feathery crowns twenty feet from the ground, de-
light the sight with their graceful elegance. Great broad-
leaved heliconiae, leathery melastomae, and succulent-
stemmed, lop-sided leaved, and flesh-coloured begonias
are abundant, and typical of tropical American forests;
but not less so are the cecropia trees, with their white
stems and large palmated leaves standing up like
great candelabra. Sometimes the ground is carpeted
with large flowers, yellow, pink, or white, that have
fallon from some invisible tree-top above, or the air is
filled with a delicious perfume, the source of which one
seeks around in vain, for the flowers that cause it are
far overhead out of sight, lost in the great overshadowing
crown of verdure. Numerous babbling brooks intersect
the forest, with moss-covered stones and fern-clad nooks.
One’s thoughts are led away to the green dells in English
dones, but are soon recalled; for the sparkling pools are
the favourite haunts of the fairy humming-birds; like an
arrow, one will dart up the brook, and poised on wings
moving with almost invisible velocity, clothed in purple,
golden, or emerald glory, hang suspended in the air;
it is seen gazing with startled look at the intruder, then
with a sudden jerk, turning round first one eye, then the
other, it disappears like a flash of light.
Unlike the plains and savannahs we crossed yesterday,
where the ground was parched up in the dry season, the
Atlantic forest, bathed in the rains distilled from the
north-east trades, is ever verdant. Perennial moisture
Ch. IV.] ROAD THROUGH THE FOREST. 59
reigns in the soil, perennial summer in the air, and
vegetation luxuriates in ceaseless activity and verdure all
the year round. Unknown are the autumn tints, the
bright browns and yellows of English woods, much less
the crimsons, purples, and yellows of Canada, where the
dying foliage rivals, nay, excels the expiring dolphin in
splendour. Unknown the cold sleep of winter; unknown
the lovely awakening of vegetation at the first gentle
touch of spring. A ceaseless round of ever-active life
weaves the forest scenery of the tropics into one mono-
tonous whole, of which the component parts exhibit in
detail untold variety and beauty.
To the genial influence of ever-present moisture and
heat we must ascribe the infinite variety of the trees of
these forests. They do not grow in clusters or masses of
single species, like our oaks, beeches, and firs, but every
tree is different from its neighbour, and they crowd upon
each other in unsocial rivalry, each trying to overtop the
other. Therefore we see the great straight trunks rising
a hundred feet without a branch, and carrying their domes
of foliage directly up to where the balmy breezes blow
and the sun's rays quicken. Lianas hurry up to the
light and sunshine, and innumerable epiphytes perch
themselves high upon the branches.
The road through the forest was very bad, the mud
deep and tenacious, the hills steep and slippery, and the
mules had to struggle and plunge along through from
two to three feet of sticky clay. One part, named the
Nispral, was especially steep and difficult to descend, the
Toad being worn into great ruts. We crossed the ranges
and brooks nearly at right angles, and were always as-
cending or descending. About two we reached a
60 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV.
clearing and hacienda, belonging to an enterprising
German, named Melzer, near a brook called Las Lajas,
who was cultivating plantains and vegetables, and had
also commenced brick and tile making, besides planting
some thousands of coffee trees. His large clearings
were a pleasant change from the forest through which
we had been toiling, and we stayed a few minutes at his
house. After passing over another league of forest-
covered ranges, we reached Pavon, one of the mines
of the Chontales Company, and passing the Javali mine
soon arrived at Santo Domingo, the head-quarters of the
gold-mining company whose operations I had come out
to superintend.
CHAPTER V.
Geographical position of Samto Domingo—Physical Geography—The
Inhabitants—Mixed Races—Negroes and Indians compared—
Women—Establishment of the Chontales Gold Mining Company
—My House and Garden—Fruits—Plantains and Bananas—
Probably not indigenous to America—Propagated from Shoots
-Do not generally mature their Seeds—Fig-trees—Granadillos
and Papaws—Vegetables—Dependence of Flowers on Insects for
their fertilization—Insect Plagues—Leaf-cutting Ants—Their
method of defoliating Trees—Their Nests—Some Trees are not
touched by the Ants—Foreign Trees are very subject to their
attack—Method of destroying the Ants—Migration of the Ants
from a Nest attacked—Corrosive Sublimate causes a sort of
Madness amongst them—Indian plan of preventing their as-
cending young Trees—Leaf-cutting Ants are fungus growers
and eaters—The Sagacity of the Ants.
THE gold-mining village of Santo Domingo is situ-
ated in the province of Chontales, Nicaragua, in lat.
T2° 16' N. and long. 84° 59' W., nearly midway between
the Atlantic and the Pacific, where Central America
begins to widen out northward of the narrow isthmus of
|Panama and Costa Rica. It is in the midst of the great
forest that covers most of the Atlantic slope of Central
America, and which continues unbroken from where we
had entered it, at Pital, eastward to the Atlantic ; west-
ward it terminates in a sinuous margin about Seven miles
from the village, and there commence the lightly tim-
bered and grassy plains and Savannahs stretching to the
62 THE NATURALIST IN NHCARAGUA. [Ch. V.
Lake of Nicaragua. The surface of the land in the
forest region forms a succession of ranges and steep
valleys, covered with magnificent timber and much
undergrowth. Santo Domingo lies about 2000 feet
above the level of the sea, and the hills around it rise
from 500 to 1000 feet higher. It is built in the bend of
a small stream, the head waters of a branch of the Blew-
fields river, on a level, low piece of ground, with the brook
winding almost round it, and, beyond that, encircled by an
amphitheatre of low hills in the hollow of which it lies.
The road to the mines runs through it, and forms the
main street, having on each side thatched stores and
irregularly built houses. The inhabitants, about three
hundred in number, are entirely dependent on the mines
around, there being no cultivation or any other employ-
ment in the immediate neighbourhood. The people are
of a mixed descent, in which Indian blood predominates,
then Spanish with a slight admixture of the Negro ele-
ment, whilst amongst the rising generation many fair-
haired children can claim paternity amongst the numerous
German and English workmen that have been employed
at the mines. The storekeepers form the aristocracy of
the village. They are indolent ; lounging about, or lying
smoking in their hammocks the greater part of the day,
but generally civil and polite. They are particular in
their dress, and may often be seen in faultless European
costume, silk umbrella in hand, in twos or threes, taking a
short quiet walk up the valley. The lower class of miners
are scantily and badly clothed, especially when they
come first to the mines. They are bare-footed, with poor.
ragged cotton trousers and a thin jacket of the same
material. Generally, after being a year or two at the
Ch. V.] - NEGROES AND INDIAN S. - 63.
mines, they begin to wear better clothing, and may often
be seen with a new shirt, to show off which they wear it
hanging down outside, like a surtout coat. Amongst these
are many pure Indians, short sturdy men, who make the
steadiest workmen, patient and industrious, but with little
appreciation of the value of money, and spending the
whole of their wages at the end of the month, before
they resume work. At these times the commandant
comes in from the town of Libertad, about nine miles
distant, with about half-a-dozen bare-footed soldiers
carrying old muskets on their shoulders, and levies
black mail upon the poor patient “Mosas,” as they are
called, in the shape of a fine for drunkenness. But
the “aguardiente,” a native-made rum, is nevertheless
always kept on hand, being a government monopoly, and
ever ready, so that the Mosas may have no excuse to be
sober and escape being fined.
Bven in their drink the poor Indians are not very
violent, and get intoxicated with surprising stolidity
and quietness. Amongst the half-breeds, especially
where the Negro element exists, there are often quarrel-
lings and rows, when they slash away at each other with
their long knives or “machetes,” and get ugly cuts,
which however heal again quickly.
Both the Negroes and Indians are decidedly inferior
to the whites in intellect; but they do not differ so much
from the Europeans as they do from each other. The
Negro will work hard for a short while on rare occasions,
or when compelled by another, but is innately lazy. The
Indian is industrious by nature, and works steadily and
well for himself; but if compelled to work for another,
loses all heart, and pines away and dies. The Negro is
64 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
talkative, vivacious, vain, and sensual; the Indian
taciturn, stolid, dignified, and moderate. As freemen,
regularly though poorly paid and kindly treated, the
Indians work well and laboriously in the mines; but the
Negro seldom engages either in that or any other settled
employment, unless compelled as a slave, in which con-
dition he is happy and thoughtless. I do not defend
slavery, but I believe it to be a greater curse to the
masters than to the slaves, more deteriorating to the
former than to the latter. The Spaniards at first en-
slaved the Indians, but they died away so rapidly that in
a very short time the indigenes of the whole of the once-
populous islands of the West Indies were exterminated,
and large numbers of Indians were carried off from the
mainland to supply their places, but died with equal
rapidity; so that the Spaniards found it more profitable
to bring negroes from Africa, who thrived and multi-
plied in captivity as quickly as the enslaved Indians
pined away and died. In Central America there never
were many black slaves; since the States threw off the
yoke of Spain there have been none; and this compara-
tive scarcity of the Negro element makes these countries
much more pleasant and safer to dwell in than the West
Indies, where it is much larger. The Indian seldom or
never molests the whites, excepting in retaliation for
some great injury; whilst amongst the free Negroes, rob-
bery, violence, and murder need no other incentives than
their own evil passions and lust.
The women at Santo Domingo are much the same as
those found at all the small provincial towns of Central
America. Morality is at a low ebb, and most of them
live as mistresses, not as wives, for which they do not
Ch. V.] MY RESIDENCE. 65
seem to suffer in the estimation of their neighbours. This
is greatly due in Nicaragua, as it is throughout Central
and South America, to the profligate lives led by the
priests, who, with few rare exceptions, live in concubi-
nage more or less open and unconcealed. The Women
have children at an early age, and make kind and in-
dulgent mothers.
The village is bounded to the eastward by the mines
and hacienda of the Chontales Mining Company, whose
houses, workshops, and machinery are on rising ground
on each side of the valley, with the brook running down
between. About fifty acres of the forest have been cut
down, and a great deal of this is fenced in and covered
with grass. Going up the valley from the village, on
the right-hand side, about fifty yards from the road, on a
grass-covered slope, stand the houses of the commis-
sioner and cashier, in the latter of which the medical
officer also lives. The former, a large, whitewashed,
Square, two-storied, wooden house, with verandahs round
three sides of it, and communicating by a covered passage
with a detached kitchen behind, had been built by one
of my predecessors, Captain Hill, R.N., who did not live
to inhabit it. It was a roomy, comfortable house, com-
manding a view of the machinery, workshops, and part
of the mines on the other side of the valley, and formed
my residence for upwards of four years.
The slope in front of the house, down to the river, was
covered with weedy bushes when I arrived; but I had
these cleared away, and a fine greensward of grass took
their place. On this I planted young Orange, lime, and
citron trees; and I had the pleasure, before I left, to see
them beginning to bear their fine fruit. To the west of
F
66 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
the house was a dell, covered with fallen logs and rubbish
thrown from the hill, in which was a perennial spring of
limpid water. I had the logs and rubbish gathered
together and burnt, put a light fence round it, and
comMissionER's House AT SANTo Domingo.
formed a small vegetable, fruit, and flower garden. The
mango and avocado trees had not come into bearing
before I left; but pineapples, figs, grenadillas, bananas,
pumpkins, plantains, papaws, and chioties fruited abund-
antly. The last named is a native of Mexico; it is a
climbing plant with succulent stems and vine-like leaves,
and grows with great rapidity. The fruit, of which it bears
a great abundance, is about the size and shape of a pear,
covered with soft prickles. It is boiled and eaten as a

Ch. V.] BANANA NOT INDIGENOU.S. 67
vegetable, and resembles vegetable marrow. At Santo
Domingo, it continues to bear a succession of fruits
during eight months of the year.
Next to maize, plantains and bananas form the prin-
cipal sustenance of the natives. The banana tree shoots
up its succulent stem, and unfolds its immense entire
leaves with great rapidity; and a group of them waving
their silky leaves in the sun, or shining ghostly white in
the moonlight, forms one of those beautiful sights that
can only be seen to perfection in the tropics. There are
a great many varieties of them, and they are cooked in
many ways—boiled, baked, made into pastry, or eaten as
a fruit. The varieties differ not only in their fruits, but
in the colour of their leaves and stems; the natives can
distinguish them without seeing the fruit, and have names
for each, by which they are known throughout all Cen-
tral America, Mexico, and Peru. These names are of
Spanish origin; and this fact, together with the absence
of any native, Mexican, or Peruvian name for the fruit,
incline me to adopt the opinion of Clavigero, who con-
tends, in opposition to other writers, that the plantain
and banana were not known in these countries before the
Spanish conquest, but were first brought from the Cana-
ries to Hayti in 1516, and from thence taken to the
Imainland. •.
Neither the sugar-cane * nor the plantain is given in
the list of the indigenous productions of Mexico by the
careful and accurate Hernandez. The natives made
Sugar from the green stems of the maize. Humboldt
* The sugar-cane is said mever to bear seed in the West Indies,
Malaga, India, Cochin China, or the Malay Archipelago. —Darwin's
“Animals and Plants under Domestication,” Vol. ii. p. 169.
. F 2
6S THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
thinks that some species of plantain were indigenous to
America; but it seems incredible that such an important
fruit could have been overlooked by the early historians.
In the old world the cultivation of the banana dates from
the earliest times of which tradition makes mention.
One of the Sanscrit names was bhanu-fruit from which
probably the name “banana” was derived.”
Both the plantain and the banana are always propa-
gated from shoots or suckers that spring from the base of
the plants; and it is to be remarked that the pineapple
and the bread-fruit, that are also universally grown from
cuttings or shoots, and have been cultivated from remote
antiquity, have in a great measure lost the faculty of
producing mature seed. Such varieties could not arise
in a state of nature, but are due to selection by early
races of mankind, who would naturally propagate the
best varieties; and, to do this, seed was not required.
As the finest kinds of bananas, pineapples, and bread-
fruit are seedless, it is probable that the nutriment that
would have been required for the formation of the seeds
has been expended in producing larger and more suc-
culent fruits. We find some varieties of oranges, which
also have been cultivated from very early ages, producing
fruits without seeds; but as these trees are propagated
from seeds, these varieties could not become so sterile as
those just mentioned. There can be no doubt that the
seedless varieties of bananas, bread-fruits, and pine-
apples have been propagated for hundreds of years; and
this fact ought to modify the opinions generally enter-
tained by horticulturists that the life of plants and trees
propagated from shoots or cuttings cannot be indefinitely
* Humboldt’s “Aspects of Nature,” vol. ii. p. 141.
Ch. W.] FRUIT OF THE PASSION-FLOWER. 6%
prolonged in that way. Perhaps this may be the case in
the trees, such as apples, that have come under their
notice; and the reason that the varieties die out after a
certain time, if not reproduced from seed, may be that the
vigour of the trees is at last used up by the production
of mature seed, but that in the seedless bananas, pine-
apples, and bread-fruits this does not happen.
Figs grow well in Nicaragua, and by many their
luscious fruit is preferred to all others. My trees suffered
greatly from the attacks of a large and fine longicorn
beetle (Taeniotes scalaris, Fab.), which laid its eggs in the
green bark, from which issued white grubs that mined
into the stem. I had to dig down to them with a knife
to extricate them and prevent them destroying the young
trees. We were surrounded at a short distance by the
forest, in which grow many species of wild fig-trees; and
this probably was the reason that my trees suffered so
much, for at Granada the fig-growers were not troubled
with this insect. -
The grenadilla is the fruit of one of the passion-
flowers (Passiflora quadrangularis), and is shaped like a
large oblong apple, which it also resembles in perfume.
It makes fine tarts and puddings, being somewhat like
the gooseberry in taste. I had much difficulty in pre-
serving it from being eaten by small forest rats that
came out of the woods, where they had already been
accustomed to eat the wild fruit of this climber.
The moist, warm climate seemed to suit the papaw
tree, as it grew with great vigour, and produced very
large and fine melon-like fruits. The green fruits are
excellent for making pastry, if flavoured with a little
lime-juice.
7() TEIE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
In vegetables, I grew three species of sweet potatoes—
yellow, purple, and white skinned, and which differ also
in their leaves and flowers; cabbages, kidney-beans,
pumpkins, yuccas (Jatropha manihot), quequisquea (a.
species of arum, Colocasia esculenia), lettuces, tomatoes,
capsicums, endives, parsley, and carrots.
The climate was too damp to grow onions; neither
could I succeed with peas, potatoes, or turnips. Scarlet
runners (Phaseolus multiflorus) grew well, and flowered
abundantly, but never produced a single pod. Darwin
has shown that this flower is dependent, like many
others, for its fertilization upon the operations of the
busy humble-bee, and that it is provided with a wonder-
ful mechanism, by means of which its pollen is rubbed
into the head of the bee, and received on the stigma of
the next plant visited.* There are many humble-bees,
of different species from ours, in tropical America; but
none of them frequented the flowers of the scarlet runner,
and to that circumstance we may safely ascribe its
sterility. An analogous case has been long known.
The vanilla plant (Vanilla planifolia) has been intro-
duced from tropical America into India, but though it
grows well, and flowers, it never fruits without artificial
aid. It is the same in the hothouses of Europe. Dr.
Morren, of Liége, has shown that, if artificially fertilised,
every flower will produce fruit; and ascribes its sterility
to the absence, in Europe and India, of some insect that
in America carries the pollen from one flower to another.f
When those interested in the acclimature of the natural
* “Gardener’s Chronicle,” Oct. 24, 1857, and Nov. 14, 1858; also
T. H. Farren, in “Annals of Natural History,” Oct. 1868.
f Taylor’s “Annals of Natural History,” vol. iii. p. 1.
Ch. V.] LEAF-CUTTING ANTS. 71
productions of one country on the soil of some distant one
study the mutual reactions of plants and animals, they
Will find that in the case of many plants it is important
that the insects specially adapted for the fertilisation of
their flowers should be introduced with them. Thus, if
the insect that assists in the fertilisation of the vanilla
could be introduced into India, the growers of that plant
would be relieved of much trouble, and it might be
thoroughly maturalised. Judging from my experience,
it would be useless to attempt the acclimature of the
Scarlet-runner bean in Chontales unless the humble-bee
was also introduced. *3
Caterpillars, plant-lice, bugs, and insect pests of all
kinds were numerous, and did much harm to my garden;
but the greatest plague of all were the leaf-cutting ants,
and I had to wage a continual warfare against them.
During this contest I gained much information regarding
their habits, and was successful in checking their ravages;
I shall occupy, therefore, the remainder of this chapter
with an account of them.
TIEAF-CUTTING ANTs.-Nearly all travellers in tropical
America have described the ravages of the leaf-cutting
ants (CEeodoma); their crowded, well-worn paths through
the forests, their ceaseless pertinacity in the spoliation of
the trees—more particularly of introduced species—which
are left bare and ragged, with the midribs and a few
jagged points of the leaves only left. Many a young
plantation of orange, mango, and lemon trees has been
destroyed by them. Again and again have I been told
in Nicaragua, when inquiring why no fruit-trees were
grown at particular places, “It is no use planting them;
72 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. W.
the ants eat them up.” The first acquaintance a stranger
generally makes with them is on encountering their paths
on the outskirts of the forest crowded with the ants; one
lot carrying off the pieces of leaves, each piece about the
size of a sixpence, and held up vertically between the
jaws of the ant; another lot hurrying along in an opposite
direction empty handed, but eager to get loaded with
their leafy burdens. If he follows this last division, it
will lead him to some young trees or shrubs, up which
the ants mount; and where each one, stationing itself on
the edge of a leaf, commences to make a circular cut,
with its scissor-like jaws, from the edge, its hinder feet
being the centre on which it turns. When the piece is
nearly cut off, it is still stationed upon it, and it looks
as though it would fall to the ground with it; but, on
being finally detached, the ant is generally found to have
hold of the leaf with one foot, and soon righting itself,
and arranging its burden to its satisfaction, it sets off at
once on its return. Following it again, it is seen to join
a throng of others, each laden like itself, and, without a
moment's delay, it hurries along the well-worn path,
As it proceeds, other paths, each thronged with busy
workers, come in from the sides, until the main road
often gets to be seven or eight inches broad, and more
thronged than the streets of the city of London.
After travelling for some hundreds of yards, often for
more than half a mile, the formicarium is reached. It
consists of low, wide mounds of brown, clayey-looking
earth, above and immediately around which the bushes
have been killed by their buds and leaves having
been persistently bitten off as they attempted to grow
after their first defoliation. Under high trees in the
Ch. V.] DESTRUCTIVENESS OF THE ANTS. 73
thick forest the ants do not make their nests, because, I
believe, the ventilation of their underground galleries,
about which they are very particular, would be interfered
with, and perhaps to avoid the drip from the trees. It
is on the outskirts of the forest, or around clearings, or
near wide roads that let in the sun, that these formi-
cariums are generally found. Numerous round tunnels,
varying from half an inch to seven or eight inches in
diameter, lead down through the mounds of earth; and
many more, from some distance around, also lead under-
neath them. At some of the holes on the mounds ants
will be seen busily at work, bringing up little pellets of
earth from below, and casting them down on the ever-
increasing mounds, so that its surface is nearly always
fresh and new-looking.
Standing near the mounds, one sees from every point
of the compass ant-paths leading to them, all thronged
with the busy workers carrying their leafy burdens. As
far as the eye can distinguish their tiny forms, troops
upon troops of leaves are moving up towards the central
point, and disappearing down the numerous tunnelled
passages. The outgoing, empty-handed hosts are partly
concealed amongst the bulky burdens of the incomers,
and can only be distinguished by looking closely amongst
them. The ceaseless, toiling hosts impress one with
their power, and one asks—What forests can stand
before such invaders? How is it that vegetation is not
eaten off the face of the earth P Surely nowhere but in
the tropics, where the recuperative powers of nature are
immense and ever active, could such devastation be
withstood.
Further acquaintance with the subject will teach the
74 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA: [Ch. V.
inquirer that, just as many insects are preserved by being
distasteful to insectivorous birds, so very many of the
forest trees are protected from the ravages of the ants
by their leaves either being distasteful to them, or un-
fitted for the purpose for which they are required, whilst
Some have special means of defence against their attacks.
None of the indigenous trees appear so suitable for them
as the introduced ones. Through long ages the trees
and the ants of tropical America have been modified to-
gether. Varieties of plants that arose unsuitable for the
ants have had an immense advantage over others that
were more suitable; and thus through time every indi-
genous tree that has survived in the great struggle has
done so because it has had originally, or has acquired,
Some protection against the great destroyer. The leaf-
cutting ants are confined to tropical America; and we
can easily understand that trees and vegetables introduced
from foreign lands where these ants are unknown could
not have acquired, excepting accidentally, and without
any reference to the ants, any protection against their
attacks, and now they are most eagerly sought by them.
Amongst introduced trees, some species of even the same
genus are more acceptable than others. Thus, in the
orange tribe, the lime (Citrus lemonum) is less liked
than the other species; it is the only one that I ever
found growing really wild in Central America: and I
have sometimes thought that even in the short time since
the lime was first introduced, about three hundred years
ago, a wild variety may have arison, less subject to the
attacks of the ants than the cultivated variety; for in
many parts I saw them growing wild, and apparently
not touched. The orange (Citrus aurantium) and the
5.
Ch. W.] NESTS OF THE LEAF-CUTTERS. 7
citron (Citrus medicus), on the other hand, are only found
where they have been planted and protected by man ;
and, were he to give up their cultivation, the only
species that would ultimately withstand the attacks of
the ants, and obtain a permanent footing in Central
America, would be the lime. The reason why the lime
is not so subject to the attacks of the ants is unknown;
and the fact that it is so is another instance of how little
we know why one species of a particular genus should
prevail over another nearly similar form. A little more
or less acridity, or a slight chemical difference in the
composition of the tissues of a leaf, so small that it is
inappreciable to our senses, may be sufficient to ensure
the preservation or the destruction of a species through-
out an entire continent.
The ravages of this ant are so great that it may not
be without interest for me to enter upon some details
respecting the means I took to protect my own garden
against their attacks, especially as the continual warfare
I waged against them for more than four years made
me acquainted with much of their wonderful economy.
In June, 1859, very soon after the formation of my
garden, the leaf-cutting ants came down upon it, and at
Once commenced denuding the young bananas, Orange and
mango trees of their leaves. I followed up the paths of
the invading hosts to their nest, which was about one
hundred yards distant, close to the edge of the forest.
The nest was not a very large one, the low mound of
earth covering it being about four yards in diameter.
At first I tried to stop the holes up, but fresh ones were
immediately opened out : I then dug down below the
mound, and laid bare the chambers beneath, filled with
76 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
ant-food and young ants in every stage of growth; but I
soon found that the underground ramifications extended
so far, and to so great a depth, whilst the ants were con-
tinually at work making fresh excavations, that it would
be an immense task to eradicate them by such means;
and notwithstanding all the digging I had done the first
day, I found them as busily at work as ever at my
garden, which they were rapidly defoliating. At this
stage, our medical officer, Dr. J. H. Simpson,” came
to my assistance, and suggested the pouring carbolic acid,
mixed with water, down their burrows. The suggestion
proved a most valuable one. We had a quantity of
common brown carbolic acid, about a pint of which I
mixed with four buckets of water, and, after stirring it
well about, poured it down the burrows; I could hear it
rumbling down to the lowest depths of the formicarium.
four or five feet from the surface. The effect was all
that I could have wished: the marauding parties were
at once drawn off from my garden to meet the new danger
at home. The whole formicarium was disorganised. Big
fellows came stalking up from the cavernous regions
below, only to descend again in the utmost perplexity.
Next day, I found them busily employed bringing up
the ant-food from the old burrows, and carrying it to a
new one a few yards distant; and here I first noticed a
wonderful instance of their reasoning powers. Between
the old burrows and the new one was a steep slope.
* This gentleman, beloved by all who knew him, of rare talent,
and with every prospect of a prosperous career before him, died at
Jamaica from hydrophobia, between two and three months after
being bitten by a small dog that had not itself shown any symptoms
of that disease. -
Ch. V.] METHOD OF ERADIOATING ANTS. 77
Instead of descending this with their burdens, they cast
them down on the top of the slope, whence they rolled
down to the bottom, where another relay of labourers
picked them up and carried them to the new burrow. It
was amusing to watch the ants hurrying out with bundles
of food, dropping them over the slope, and rushing back
immediately for more. They also brought out great
numbers of dead ants that the fumes of the carbolic acid
had killed. A few days afterwards, when I visited the
locality again, I found both the old burrows and the new
one entirely deserted, and I thought they had died off;
but subsequent events convinced me that the survivors
had only moved away to a greater distance. It was fully
twelve months before my garden was again invaded. I
had then a number of rose-trees and also cabbages grow-
ing, which the ants seemed to prefer to everything
else. The rose-trees were soon defoliated, and great
havoc was made amongst the cabbages. I followed
them to their nest, and found it about two hundred yards
from the one of the year before. I poured down the
burrows, as before, several buckets of water with carbolic
acid. The water is required to carry the acid down to
the lowest chambers. The ants, as before, were at once
withdrawn from my garden; and two days afterwards, on
visiting the place, I found all the survivors at work on one
track that led directly to the old nest of the year before,
where they were busily employed making fresh excava-
tions. Many were bringing along pieces of the ant-
food from the old to the new nests; others carried the
undeveloped white pupae and larvae. It was a wholesale
and entire migration; and the next day the formicarium
down which I had last poured the carbolic acid was
"8 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
entirely deserted. I afterwards found that when much
disturbed, and many of the ants destroyed, the survivors
migrate to a new locality. I do not doubt that Some of
the leading minds in this formicarium recollected the nest
of the year before, and directed the migration to it.
Don Francisco Velasquez informed me, in 1870, that
he had a powder which made the ants mad, so that they
bit and destroyed each other. He gave me a little of it,
and it proved to be corrosive sublimate. I made several
trials of it, and found it most efficacious in turning a
large column of the ants. A little of it sprinkled across
one of their paths in dry weather has a most surprising
effect. As soon as one of the ants touches the white
powder, it commences to run about wildly, and to attack
any other ant it comes across. In a couple of hours,
round balls of the ants will be found all biting each other;
and numerous individuals will be seen bitten completely
in two, whilst others have lost some of their legs or
antennae. News of the commotion is carried to the formi-
carium, and huge fellows, measuring three-quarters of an
inch in length, that only come out of the nest during a
migration or an attack on the nest or one of the working
columns, are seen stalking down with a determined air,
as if they would soon right matters. As soon, however,
as they have touched the sublimate, all their stateliness
leaves them : they rush about; their legs are seized
hold of by some of the smaller ants already affected by
the poison; and they themselves begin to bite, and in
short time become the centre of fresh balls of rabid ants.
The sublimate can only be used effectively in dry
weather. At Colon I found the Americans using coal
tar, which they spread across their paths when any of
Ch. V.] ANTS GROWERS OF MUSHIROOMS. 79
them led to their gardens. I was also told that the Indians
prevent them from ascending young trees by tying thick
wisps of grass, with the sharp points downwards, round
the stems. The ants cannot pass through the wisp, and
do not find out how to surmount it, getting confused
amongst the numberless blades, all leading downwards.
I mention these different plans of meeting and frustrating
the attacks of the ants at some length, as they are one of
the greatest Scourges of tropical America, and it has been
too readily supposed that their attacks cannot be warded
off. I myself was enabled, by using some of the means
mentioned above, to cultivate successfully trees and
vegetables of which the ants were extremely fond.
Notwithstanding that these ants are so common
throughout tropical America, and have excited the at-
tention of nearly every traveller, there still remains
much doubt as to the use to which the leaves are put.
Some naturalists have supposed that they use them
directly as food; others, that they roof their underground
nests with them. I believe the real use they make of
them is as a manure, on which grows a minute species of
fungus, on which they feed;—that they are, in reality,
mushroom growers and eaters. This explanation is so
extraordinary and unexpected, that I may be per-
mitted to enter somewhat at length on the facts that
led me to adopt it. When I first began my warfare
against the ants that attacked my garden, I dug down
deeply into some of their nests. In our mining opera-
tions we also, on two occasions, carried our excavations
from below up through very large formicariums, so that
all their underground workings were exposed to obser-
vation. I found their nests below to consist of numerous
80 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA, [Ch. V.
rounded chambers, about as large as a man's head,
connected together by tunnelled passages leading from
one chamber to another. Notwithstanding that many
NEST OF LEAF-CUTTING ANT.
columns of the ants were continually carrying in the cut
leaves, I could never find any quantity of these in the
burrows, and it was evident that they were used up in
some way immediately they were brought in. The
chambers were always about three parts filled with a
speckled brown, flocculent, spongy-looking mass of a light
and loosely connected substance. Throughout these
masses were numerous ants belonging to the smallest
division of the workers, and which do not engage in leaf-
carrying. Along with them were pupae and larvae, not
gathered together, but dispersed, apparently irregularly,
throughout the flocculent mass. This mass, which I
have called the ant-food, proved, on examination, to be
composed of minutely subdivided pieces of leaves,
withered to a brown colour, and overgrown and lightly
connected together by a minute white fungus that rami-
fied in every direction throughout it. I not only found
this fungus in every chamber I opened, but also in the

Ch. W.] FOOD OF THE ANTS. S1
chambers of the nest of a distinct species that generally
eomes out only in the night-time, and often enters the
house and carries off various farinaceous substances, and
does not make mounds above its nests, but long, winding
passages, terminating in chambers similar to the common
species, and always, like them, three parts filled with
flocculent masses of fungus-covered vegetable matter,
amongst which are the ant nurses and immature ants.
When a nest is disturbed, and the masses of ant-food
spread about, the ants are in great concern to carry every
morsel of it under shelter again; and sometimes, when I
had dug into a nest, I found the next day all the earth
thrown out filled with little pits that the ants had dug
into it to get out the covered up food. When they
migrate from one part to another, they also carry with
them all the ant-food from their old habitations. That
they do not eat the leaves themselves I convinced my-
self; for I found near the tenanted chambers deserted
ones filled with the refuse particles of leaves that had
been exhausted as manure for the fungus, and were now
left, and served as food for larvae of Staphylimidae and
other beetles.
These ants do not confine themselves to leaves, but also
carry off any vegetable substance that they find suitable
for growing the fungus on. They are very partial to the
inside white rind of oranges, and I have also seen them
cutting up and carrying off the flowers of certain shrubs,
the leaves of which they neglected. They are very
particular about the ventilation of their underground
chambers, and have numerous holes leading up to the
surface from them. These they open out or close up,
apparently to keep up a regular degree of temperature
G
82 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
below. The great care they take that the pieces of
leaves they carry into the nest should be neither too dry,
nor too damp, is also consistent with the idea that the
object is the growth of a fungus that requires particular
conditions of temperature and moisture to ensure its
vigorous growth. If a sudden shower should come on,
the ants do not carry the wet pieces into the burrows,
but throw them down near the entrances. Should the
weather clear up again, these pieces are picked up when
nearly dried, and taken inside; should the rain, however,
continue, they get sodden down into the ground, and are
left there. On the contrary, in dry and hot weather,
when the leaves would get dried up before they could be
conveyed to the nest, the ants, when in exposed situa-
tions, do not go out at all during the hot hours, but
bring in their leafy burdens in the cool of the day and
during the night. As soon as the pieces of leaves are
carried in they must be cut up by the small class of
workers into little pieces. I have never seen the smallest
class of ants carrying in leaves; their duties appear to be
inside, cutting them up into smaller fragments, and
nursing the immature ants. I have, however, seen them
running out along the paths with the others; but instead
of helping to carry in the burdens, they climb on the top
of the pieces which are being carried along by the middle-
sized workers, and so get a ride home again. It is very
probable that they take a run out merely for air and
exercise. The largest class of what are called workers are,
I believe, the directors and protectors of the others. They
are never seen out of the nest, excepting on particular
occasions, such as the migrations of the ants, and when
One of the working columns or nests is attacked; they
Ch. V.] T.EASONING POWERS OF ANTS. S3
then come stalking up, and attack the enemy with their
strong jaws. Sometimes, when digging into the burrows,
one of these giants has unperceived climbed up my dress,
and the first intimation of his presence has been the
burying of his jaws in my neck, from which he would
not fail to draw the blood. The stately observant way
in which they stalk about, and their great size, compared
with the others, always impressed me with the idea that
in their bulky heads lay the brains that directed the
community in their various duties. Many of their
actions, such as that I have mentioned of two relays of
workmen carrying out the ant food, can scarcely be
blind instinct. Some of the ants make mistakes, and
carry in unsuitable leaves. Thus grass is always
rejected by them, but I have seen some ants, perhaps
young ones, carrying, leaves of grass; but after a while
these pieces are always brought out again and thrown
away. I can imagine a young ant getting a severe ear-
wigging from one of the major-domos for its stupidity.
I shall conclude this long account of the leaf-cutting
ants with one more instance of their reasoning powers.
A nest was made near one of our tramways, and to get
to the trees the ants had to cross the rails, over which the
waggons were continually passing and repassing. Every
time they came along a number of ants were crushed
to death. They persevered in crossing for some time,
but at last set to work and tunnelled underneath each
rail. One day, when the waggons were not running, I
stopped up the tunnels with stones; but although great
numbers carrying leaves were thus cut off from the nest,
they would not cross the rails, but set to work making
fresh tunnels underneath them. Apparently an order
G 2
84 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V.
had gone forth, or a general understanding been come to,
that the rails were not to be crossed.
These ants do not appear to have many enemies,
though I sometimes found holes burrowed into their
nests, apparently by the Small armadillo. I once saw a
minute parasitic fly hovering over a column of ants, near
a nest, and every now and then darting down and
attaching an egg to one entering. Large, horned beetles
(Coelosis biloba) and a species of Staphylinus are found in
the nests, but probably their larvae live on the rotten
leaves, after the ants are done with them.
CHAPTER VI.
Configuration of the Ground at Santo Domingo—Excavation of Wal-
leys—Geology of the District—Decomposition of the Rocks—
Gold mining—Auriferous Quartz Weins—Mode of occurrence of
the Gold—Lodes richer next the surface than at lower depths—
Excavation and reduction of the Ore—Extraction of the Gold—
“Mantos”—Origin of Mineral Weins—Their connection with
intrusions of Plutonic Rocks.
THERE is scarcely any level land around Santo
Domingo, but in every direction a succession of hills and
valleys. The hills are not isolated ; they run in irregular
ranges, having mostly an east and west direction, but
with many modifications in their trend. From the
main valleys numerous auxiliary Ones cut deeply into the
ranges, and bifurcate again and again, like the branches
of a tree, forming channels for carrying off the great
quantity of water that falls in these rainy forests. The
branching valleys, all leading into main ones, and these
into the rivers, have been excavated by sub-aērial agency,
and almost entirely by the action of running water. It
is the system that best effects the drainage of the
country, and has been caused by that drainage.
The wearing out of valleys near Santo Domingo pro-
ceeds more rapidly than in regions where less rain falls,
and where the rocks are not so soft and decomposed.
Even during the few years I was in Nicaragua there
were some modifications of the surface effected; I saw
86 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
the commencement of new valleys and the widening and
lengthening of others, caused not only by the gradual
denudation of the Surface, but by landslips, some of
which occur every wet season.
The rocks of the district are dolerytes, with bands and
protrusions of hard greenstones. The decomposition of
the dolerytes is very great, and extends from the tops of
the hills to a depth, as proved in the mines, of at least
two hundred feet. Next the surface they were often as
soft as alluvial clay, and might be cut with a spade. This
decomposition of the rocks near the surface prevails in
many parts of tropical America, and is principally, if not
always, confined to the forest regions. It has been
ascribed, and probably with reason, to the percolation
through the rocks of rain-water charged with a little acid
from the decomposing vegetation. If this be so, the
great depth to which it has reached tells of the immense
antiquity of the forests.
Gold-mining at Santo Domingo is confined almost
entirely to auriferous quartz lodes, no alluvial deposits
having been found that will pay for working. The lodes
run east and west, and are nearly perpendicular, some-
times dipping a little to the north, sometimes a little to
the south, and near the surface, generally turning over
towards the face of the hill through which they cut.
The trend of the main ranges, also nearly east and west,
is probably due to the direction of the outcrops of the
lodes which have resisted the action of the elements
better than the soft dolerytes. The quartz veins now
form the crests of many of the ranges, but are everywhere
cut through by the lateral valleys. The beds of doleryte
lie at low angles, through which the quartz veins cut
Ch. VI.] QUARTZ LODES. 87
nearly vertically, excepting that they are very irregular
in thickness, and often branch and send thin offshoots
into the enclosing rocks; they resemble coal seams that
have been turned up on edge, so as to be vertical instead
of horizontal. They run for a great distance. Near
Santo Domingo they have been traced for two miles in
length, and probably they extend much further. They
are what are called fissure-veins, owing their origin to
cracks or fractures in the rocks that have been filled up
with mineral substances through chemical, thermal,
aqueous, or Plutonic agencies. In depth, the bottom of
fissure-veins has never been reached, and taking into
consideration the deep-seated forces required to produce
fissures of such great length and regularity, we may
safely assume that they run for miles deep into the earth
—that their extension vertically is as great as it is hori-
zontally. The probability that they extend to immense
depths is increased when we reflect that mineral veins
occur in parallel groups that run with great regularity
for hundreds of miles; and further by the fact that, in all
the changes of the earth's surface, by which deep-seated
rocks have been brought up and exposed by denudation,
no instance is known of the bottom of a fissure-vein
having been brought by such movements within the reach
of man.
The gold-mines of Santo Domingo are in veins or lodes
of auriferous quartz that run parallel to each other, and
are so numerous that across a band more than a mile in
width one may be found every fifty yards. All that have
been worked vary greatly in thickness: Sometimes within
a hundred yards a lode will thicken out from one to
seventeen feet. Their auriferous contents vary still more
88 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
than their width. The rich ore, worth from one to four
ounces per ton, occurs in irregular patches and bands
very small in comparison with the bulk of the ore stuff,
which varies in value from two to seven pennyweights
per ton. The average value of all the ore treated by the
Chontales Mining Company, up to the end of 1871, has
been about seven pennyweights per ton, and during that
MACHINERY OF CHONTALES GOLD MINING COMPANY.
time small patches have been met with worth one hun-
dred ounces of gold per ton. The gold does not occur
pure, but is a natural alloy of gold and silver, containing
about three parts of the former to one of the latter.
Besides this metallic alloy (to which, for brevity, I shall,
in the remarks I have to make, give its common designa-

Ch. VI.] QUARTZ LODES. 89
tion of gold), the quartz lodes contain sulphate of silver,
peroxide of manganese, peroxide of iron, Sulphides of iron
and copper, and occasionally ores of lead.
The quartz is generally very friable, full of drossy
cavities, and broken up into innumerable small pieces
that are often coloured black by the peroxide of man-
ganese. The gold is in minute grains, and generally
distributed loose amongst the quartz. Pieces as large as
a pin's head are rare, and specimens of quartz showing
the gold in it are seldom met with, even in the richest
portion of the lode. The fine gold-dust can, however,
easily be detected by washing portions of the lode-stuff
in a horn. The quartz and clay is washed away, and
the gold-dust sinks to the bottom, and is retained in the
spoon. This is the usual way in which the lode is
tested by the mining agents, and long practice has
made them very expert in valuing the ore by the
wash in the “spoon.” Although most of the gold
occurs loose, amongst the soft portions of the lode,
the hard quartz also contains it disseminated in minute
grains throughout. These can be obtained in the
horn by pounding the quartz to powder and then
washing it. -
One feature in the distribution of gold in the quartz
lodes of Santo Domingo led to a most exaggerated
opinion of their value when they were first mined by
English companies. On the hills, near the outcrops of
the lodes, the ore was in some places exceedingly rich.
One thousand ounces of gold were obtained from a small
patch of ore near the surface of the Consuelo lode, and
at Santo Domingo, San Benito, San Antonio, and
Javali lodes, very rich ore was also discovered within a
90 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
few fathoms of the surface. When, however, these
deposits were followed downwards, they invariably got
poorer, and at one hundred feet from the surface, no
very rich ore has been met with. Below that, when
the works are prosecuted still deeper, there does not
appear to be any further progressive deterioration in
the value of the ore, and it varies in yield from two to
seven pennyweights of gold per ton, upon which yield
further depth does not seem to have any effect. The cause
of these rich deposits near the surface does not appear
to me to be that the lodes originally, before they were
exposed by denudation, contained more gold in their
upper portions than below, but to be the effect of the
decomposition, and wearing down of the higher parts,
and the concentration of the gold they contained in the
lode below that worn away. We have seen that in the
decomposed parts of the lode, the gold exists in loose
fine grains. During the wet season water percolates freely
from the surface down through the lodes, and the gold
set free by the decomposition of the ore at the surface
must be carried down into it, so that in the course of ages,
during the gradual degradation and wearing away of the
surface, there has, I believe, been an accumulation of
the loose gold in the upper parts of the lodes from parts
that originally stood much higher, and have now been
worn away by the action of the elements. -
This accumulation of loose gold near the surface of
auriferous veins, set at liberty from its matrix by the
decomposition of the ore, and concentrated by degrada-
tion, is probably the reason of the great richness of
many of what are called the caps of quartz veins; that
is, the parts next the existing surface, and has, also,
Ch. VI.] QUARTZ LODES. 91
perhaps, originated the belief that auriferous lodes
deteriorate in value in depth. I at one time, after
having studied the auriferous quartz veins of Australia,
advocated this theory which was first insisted upon by
Sir R. I. Murchison, but further experience in North
Wales, Nova Scotia, Brazil, and Central America, has
led me to doubt its correctness, excepting in cases such
as we have been considering, where there has been an
accumulation of gold in the superficial portions of lodes,
since their original formation. Gold is distributed in
quartz veins in bands, and patches of richer stone of
more or less extent. These richer portions of the lodes,
if sunk upon perpendicularly, will be passed through,
but so also they would be if followed horizontally, their
extent in one direction being as great as it is in the
other. The chances of meeting with further patches of
rich ore in depth, after one has been passed through,
are about the same as they are in driving horizontally,
and the frequency therefore with which the auriferous
ores are met with along the surface will, as a rule, be an
index of their occurrence in depth, if we be careful in
distinguishing deposits belonging to the original condi-
tion of the lodes, and those due to subsequent con-
centration. To do this we must get below the imme-
diate surface, and take as our guide the gold occurring
in the solid undecomposed quartz, and not the loose
grains contained in the fissures and cavities. -
The lodes of Santo Domingo are worked by means of
levels driven from near the bottoms of the valleys that
intersect them. When these levels have entered suffi-
ciently far into the hills, shafts are driven upwards from
them to the surface, and other levels driven sixty feet
92 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
higher than the first. This process is continued until
the lode lying above the lowest level has been divided
off into horizontal bands, each about sixty feet in depth.
The quartz is then excavated above the topmost level,
and thrown down the shafts to the lowest, where it is
received into waggons and conveyed to the reduction
works. As both the ore and the enclosing rocks are
greatly decomposed and very soft, the whole of the
ground has to be securely timbered as the work proceeds.
The levels are timbered with “mispera,” a wood of great
durability and strength, but the excavated portions
between them are only temporarily secured with
common soft wood, and at the end of every fortnight
filled up with clay and barren rock. The mining is
entirely executed by native workmen, principally
2 % xº~~
2% %;
U.
Tºnway to Stamps
SECTION OF GOLD MINE.
Diagram showing method of excavating ore at Santo Domingo Mines.
A, Levels; B, Rise, down which the ore is thrown ; D, Stopes; C, Stopes
refilled with clay and barren rock. -
Mestizos from the border lands of Honduras and Nica-
Fagua, where they have been engaged in silver mining.
They are paid according to the amount of ground exca-
vated, and are very industrious when poor; but when
they accumulate a little money, they take fits of idleness
and dissipation until it is spent again.



Ch. VI.] QUARTZ LODES. 93
The ore is taken down to the reduction works in
waggons that run down by gravitation, and are drawn
up again by mules. It is then stamped to powder by
iron beaters, each of which is lifted by cams, and let fall
seventy times per minute. The stamped ore, in the
form of fine sand, is then carried by a stream of water
over inclined copper plates covered with mercury, with
which is mixed a little metallic sodium. Nearly the
whole of the free gold is caught by the mercury, for
which it has a great affinity, and accumulates as
amalgam on the copper plates, from which it is cleaned
off every twelve hours. The sand and water then
passes over inclined tables covered with blankets, the
fibres of which intercept particles of gold and mercury
that have escaped from the first process, and afterwards
into a concentrating box, where the coarsest grains of
Sand and the Sulphurets of iron, copper, and silver, are
caught, and with the sand from the blankets retreated
in arrastres. These arrastres are round troughs, twelve
feet in diameter, paved with stones. Four large stones
of quartz are dragged round and round in this trough,
and grind the coarse sand to fine powder. The gold
liberated sinks into the crevices in the stone pave-
ment, a little mercury being put into the trough to form
it into amalgam. The arrastres and all the amalga-
mating apparatus is cleaned up once a month. The
amalgam obtained is Squeezed through thin dressed
skins, and is then of the consistence of stiff putty, and of
a silver colour. These balls of amalgam are placed in
iron retorts, and the mercury driven off by heat and
condensed again in water. These balls of gold so ob-
tained are then melted into bars weighing about one
94 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
hundred ounces each, and in that state sent to England.
At Santo Domingo about two thousand tons of ore are
treated monthly, and the whole cost of treatment, in-
cluding all charge for mining, carriage, reduction, amal-
gamation, and management, is only about eight shillings
per ton. The loss of mercury is about twenty pounds
for every thousand tons of ore treated; the smallness of
the loss in comparison with that of many other gold-
extracting establishments being greatly due to the em-
#SºFA
==C#,
|
|
|
wº
e. N
SECTION ACROSS S.AN ANTONIO LODE.
A, Lode; B, Decomposed doleryte; C, Surface soil;
D, Quartz rocks in surface soil.
ployment of sodium in the amalgamating processes.
The loss of mercury usually occurring in amalgamation
work is principally caused by its mineralisation, and
sodium has such an intense affinity for oxygen and










Ch. VI.] (QUARTZ LODES. 95
sulphur, that it reduces the mercury to its metallic
form again, and prevents its being carried off in light
mineralised flakes and powder.
The band of auriferous quartz veins worked at Santo
Domingo continues westward for eight miles, as far as
the savannahs near Libertad, and has been largely
mined in the neighbourhood of that town, and between
that point and Santo Domingo. Besides the working of
the mines proper, some surface deposits, called by the
Spaniards “Mantos,” are also worked for gold, espe-
cially in the neighbourhood of Libertad. The
“Mantos” consist of broken quartz, covering the
faces of the hills in the neighbourhood of some of
the lodes. In some places they form a broken
but regular stratum over the whole side of a hill,
and I was much puzzled at first to account for their
Origin.
I have already mentioned that the lodes near their
summit incline over towards the face of the hill through
which they cut. In some cases, as in the San Antonio
mine, the lode is in parts bent completely round, as
shown in the annexed section. This bending over of
the lodes is always towards the face of the hill, and is,
I think, produced by successive small land slips. It is
evident that if carried still further than in the case
shown in the diagram, the lode would be brought down
over the face of the hill, and the result has, I think,
been achieved in some places, and a regular “Manto”
produced. I have already stated that small landslips
are of frequent occurrence on the sides of the hills.
We had several times the entrance to our minés closed
by them in the wet season.
96 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
Mr. David Forbes,” in his account of the gold of Peru
and Bolivia, has advanced the opinion that auriferous
quartz veins belong to two different systems, one occur-
ring in connection with Granitic, the other with
Diorytic intrusive rocks. In later papers he has shown
that this occurrence of gold is not confined to South
America, but appears to prevail in all the other quarters
of the world.f. One of the latest writers on the subject,
Mr. R. Daintree, in his “Notes on the Geology of
Queensland,” has shown that the auriferous veinstones
in that colony occur in connection with, or in the near
vicinity of certain intrusive trap-rocks, and that even
some of the trappean dykes themselves are auriferous.:
I, myself, several years ago, endeavoured to show that
mineral veins in granitic districts occurred in regular
sequences, with certain intrusive rocks, as follows:—
1st, Intrusion of main mass of granite; 2nd, Granitic
veins; 3rd, Elvan dykes; and, lastly, Mineral veins,
cutting through all the other intrusive rocks.S Later
observations have led me to conclude that a similar
sequence of events characterised the occurrence of
auriferous quartz veins in connection with the intrusive
rocks, commonly designated Greenstones, in some
districts consisting of diabase, as in North Wales, near
Dolgelly; in others of dioryte, as in Santo Domingo;
and in many parts of South America and Australia.
In North Wales we have, firstly, an intrusion of diabase,
occurring in great mountain masses; 2ndly, Irregular
* Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., Wol. xvii.
* Geological Magazine, September, 1866,
† Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxviii. p. 308.
§ See “Geol. Survey of Canada,” pp. 141 and 173.
Ch. VI.] ORIGIN OF MINERAL WEINS. 97
tortuous dykes of diabase; 3rdly, Elvan dykes; and,
lastly, auriferous quartz veins. In every region of
intrusive plutonic rocks that has been thoroughly
explored, a succession of events, culminating in the pro-
duction of mineral veins, has been proved to have taken
place,” and we are bound to look upon the origin of such
veins as the natural result of the plutonic intrusion;
there is, also, sometimes a complete gradation from
veins of perfectly crystallised granite, through others
abounding in quartz at the expense of the other con-
stituents up to veins filled with pure quartz, as at Porth
Just, near Cape Cornwall; and, again, the same vein
will in some parts be filled with felspar; in others, con-
tain irregular masses of quartz, apparently the excess of
silica beyond what has been absorbed in the trisilicate
compound of felspar.t. Granitic, porphyritic, and trap-
dykest also sometimes contain gold and other metals;
and I think the probability is great that quartz veins
have been filled in the same manner,-that if dykes and
veins of granite have been an igneous injection, so have
those of quartz. By an igneous injection, I do not
mean that the fused rock owed its fluidity to dry heat.
The celebrated researches of Sorby on the microscopical
fluid cavities in the quartz of granite and quartz veins,
have shown beyond a doubt that the vapour of water
was present in comparatively large quantities when the
quartz was solidifying. All strata below the surface
contain water, and if melted up would still hold it as
* “Mineral Weins,” p. 16.
f Mr. John Phillips in “Memoirs, Geological Survey of Great
Britain,” Vol. ii. p. 45.
† Sir R. I. Murchison, “Siluria,” pp. 479, 481,488, and 500; and
R. Daimtree, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. xxviii. pp. 308, 310,
FI
98 TIHE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
Superheated steam ; and M. Angelot has suggested that
fused rock under great pressure may dissolve large
quantities of the vapour of water, just as liquids dissolve
gases. The presence of the vapour of water would
cause the liquefaction of quartz at a much lower tempe-
rature than would be possible by heat alone, unaided by
water.” I know that this opinion is contrary to that
usually held by geologists, the theory generally
accepted being that mineral veins have been produced
by deposits from hot springs; but during twenty years
I have been engaged in auriferous quartz mining in
various parts of the world, and nowhere have I met
with lodes, the phenomena of which would be explained
on this hypothesis. The veinstone is pure quartz con-
taining water in microscopical cavities, as in the quartz
crystals of granite, but not combined as in the hydrous
siliceous scoriae deposited from hot springs. The lodes
are not ribboned, but consist of quartz, jointed across
from side to side, exactly like trappean dykes. There is
often a banded arrangement produced by the repeated
re-opening and filling of the same fissure ; but never, in
quartz veins, a regular filling up from the sides towards
the centre, as in veins produced by deposits from
springs. Quartz veins extend sometimes for miles, and
it is necessary to suppose on the hydro-thermal theory
that they kept open sufficiently long for the gradual
deposition of the veinstones, without the soft and shat-
tered rocks at their sides falling in, nor yet fragments
from above; although there are many lodes, fully twenty
feet in width, filled entirely with quartz and mineral
ores, without any included fragments of fallen rocks,
* H. C. Sorby, Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. x:y.
Ch. VI.] ORIGIN OF MINERAL WEINS. . 99
and nowhere showing any trace of regular deposition on
the sides. The gold also found in auriferous lodes is
never pure, but forms various alloys of gold, silver,
copper, lead, iron, and bismuth ; and no way is known
of producing these alloys except by fusion. -
It is true that mineral veins contain many minerals
that could not exist together undecomposed with even a
moderate degree of heat; but it is only here contended
that the original filling of the lodes was an igneous in-
jection, not that the present arrangement and composi-
tion of all the minerals is due to the same action. Since
the lodes were first filled, they have been subjected to
every variety of hydro-thermal and aqueous influence ;
for the cooling of the heated rocks must have been a slow
process, and undoubtedly the veins have often been the
channels both for the passage of hot water and steam
from the interior, and of cold water charged with carbonic
acid and carbonate of lime from the surface, and many
changes must have taken place. Auriferous quartz veins
have resisted these influences better than others, because
neither the veinstone nor the metal is easily altered, and
such veins therefore form better guides for the study of
the origin of mineral lodes than fissures filled with calc
spar and ores of the baser metal, all readily dissolved and re-
formed by hydro-thermal agencies. Our mineralogical
museums are filled with beautiful specimens of crystals
of quartz, fluor spar, and various Ores deposited one on
the other; and the student who confines his attention to
these is naturally led to believe that he sees before him
the process by which mineral veins have been filled. But
the miner, working far underground, knows that such
crystals are only found in cavities and fissures, and that
H 2
18):0 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
the normal arrangement of the minerals is very different.
The deposition of various spars one on the other in cavities
is a secondary operation ever now going on, and has
nothing necessarily to do with the original filling of the
lodes; indeed, their arrangement is so different that it
helps to prove they have been differently formed.
It would take a volume to discuss this question in all
its bearings, and as I have already entered more fully
into it in another place,” I shall only now give a brief
résumé of the conclusions I have arrived at respecting the
origin of mineral veins. -
1. Sedimentary strata have been carried down, by
movements of the earth’s crust, far below the surface,
covered with other strata, and subjected to great heat,
which, aided by the water contained in the rocks and
various chemical reactions, has effected a re-arrangement
of the mineral contents of the strata, so that by mole-
cular movements the metamorphic crystalline rocks,
including interstratified granites and greenstones, have
been formed.
2. Carried to greater depths and subjected to more
intense heat, the strata have been completely fused, and
the liquid or pasty mass, including the contorted strata
above it, has formed perfectly crystalline intrusive granites
and greenstones. -
3. As the heated rocks cooled from their highest parts
downwards, cracks or fissures have been formed in them
by contraction, and these have been filled from the still
fluid mass below. At the beginning these injections
have been the same as the first massive intrusive rocks,
* “Mineral Weins,” by Thomas Belt. John Weale, 1861.
Ch. VI.] ORIGIN OF MINERAL WEINS. 101
either granite or greenstone; but as the rocks gradually
cooled, the fissures reached greater and greater depths;
and the lighter constituents having been drawn off and
exhausted, only the heavier molten silica, mingled with
metallic and aqueous vapours, has been left, and with
these the last-formed and deepest fissures have been
filled. These injections never reached to the surface,—
probably never beyond the area of heated rocks; so that
there have been no overflows from them, and they have
only been exposed by subsequent great upheaval and de-
nudation. 3.
4. Probably the molten matter was injected into the
fissures of rocks already greatly heated, and the cooling
of these rocks has been prolonged over thousands of years,
during which the lodes have been subjected to every
degree of heat, from that of fusion to their present
normal temperature. During the slow upheaval and
denudation of the lodes, they have been subjected to
Various chemical, hydro-thermal, and aqueous agencies,
by which many of their contents have been re-arranged
and re-formed, new minerals have been brought in
by percolation of water from the surrounding rocks,
and possibly some of the original contents have been
carried out by mineral springs rising through the lines
of fissures which are not completely sealed by the
igneous injection, as the contraction of the molten matter
in cooling has left cracks and crevices through which
water readily passes.
5. Some of the fissures may have been re-opened since
they were raised beyond the reach of molten matter, and
the new rent may have been filled by hydro-thermal
or aqueous agencies, and may contain alloy with vein-
I ()2 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VI.
stones of calcite derived from neighbouring beds of lime-
stone, and some minerals derived from a previous igneous
injection; and crevices and cavities, called vaghs by the
miners, have been filled more or less completely with
crystals of fluor spar, quartz, and various ores of metals
from true aqueous solutions, or by the action of super-
heated steam.
6. By these means the signs of the original filling of
many mineral lodes, especially those of the baser metals,
have been obscured or obliterated ; but in auriferous
quartz lodes both the metal and the veinstone have
generally resisted all these secondary agencies, and are
presented to us much the same as they were first deposited,
excepting that the associated minerals have been altered, .
and in some cases new ones introduced, by the passage of
hot springs from below or percolation of water from the
surface.
CHAPTER VII.
Climate of the north-eastern side of Nicaragua–Excursions around
Santo Domingo —The Artigua–Corruption of ancient Names —
Butterflies, Spiders, and Wasps—Humming-birds, Beetles, and
AntS–Plants and Trees—Timber—Monkey attacked by Eagle—
White-faced Monkey — Anecdotes of a tame one— Curassows
and other game Birds —Trogons, Woodpeckers, Motmots, and
Toucans.
THE climate of Santo Domingo and of the whole
TOrth-eastern side of Nicaragua is a very damp one.
The rains set in in May, and continue with occasional
intermission until the following January, when the dry
Season of a little more than three months begins. Even
during the short-lived dry season there are occasional
rains, so that although the roads dry up, vegetation never
does, the ground in the woods is ever moist, and the
brooks perennial. In the shady forest, mosquitoes and
sand-flies are rather troublesome ; but the large cleared
space about the houses of the mining company is almost
free from them, and in the beautiful light evenings one
can sit under the verandahs undisturbed, watching the
play of the moonbeams on the waving silky leaves of
the bananas, or the twinkling north star just peeping over
the range in front, or “Charlie's Wain” in the upper half
of its endless circlings. In the opposite direction we can
See the beautiful constellations of the southern hemisphere,
whilst on the darkest nights innumerable fire-flies flash
104 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
their intermittent lights as they pass amongst the low
bushes or herbage, making another twinkling firmament
on earth. On other evenings, sitting inside with lighted
candles and wide-opened doors, great bats flap inside,
make a round of the apartment, and pass out again, or
iris-winged moths, attracted by the light, flit about the
ceiling, or long-horned beetles flop down on the table;
and in this way I made my first acquaintance with many
entomological rarities.*
The heaviest rains fall in July and August, and at
these times the brooks are greatly swollen; the One
in front of my house sometimes carried away the little
wooden bridge that crossed it, and for an hour or two be-
came impassable, but subsided again almost as soon as the
heavy rain ceased falling, for the watershed above does
not extend far. Every year our operations were impeded
by runs in the mines, or by small landslips stopping up
Our tramways and levels, or floods carrying away our
dam or breaking our watercourses; but after August we
considered our troubles on this score at an end for the
season. Occasionally the rains lasted three or four days
without intermission, but generally they would come on
in the afternoon, and there would be a downpour, such as
is only seen in the tropics, for an hour or two, then some
clear weather, until another great bank of clouds rolled
up from the north-east and sent down another deluge.
In September, October, and November there are breaks
of fine weather, sometimes lasting for a fortnight; but De-
* In moths, numerous fine Sphingidae and Bombycidae ; and in
beetles, amongst many others, the rare Xestia nitida (Bates) and
Hea:Oplon albipenſive (Bates) were first described from these evening
captures.
Ch. VII.] EXCURSIONS. 105
cember is generally a very wet month, the rains ex-
tending far into January, so that it is not until February
that the roads begin to dry up.
I had much riding about. The mines worked by us,
when I first went out, extended from Consuelo, a mile
higher up the valley, to Pavon, a mile below Santo Do-
mingo; and even after I had concentrated our operations
to those nearer to our reduction works, there were many
Occasions for me to ride into the woods. I had to look
after our woodcutters and charcoal-burners, to see that
they did not encroach upon the lands of our neighbours,
as they were inclined to do, and involve us in squabbles
and lawsuits; paths were to be opened out, to bring in
mispra and cedar timber; our property had to be sur-
veyed, and new mines, found in the woods, visited and
explored. Besides this, I spent most of my spare time in
the forest, which surrounded us on every side, so that we
could not go a mile in any direction without getting into
it: longer excursions were frequent. The Nicaraguans,
like all Spanish Americans, are very litigious, and every
now then I would be summoned, as the representative of
the company, to appear at Libertad, Juigalpa, or Acoyapo,
to answer Some frivolous complaint, generally made with
the expectation of extorting money, but entertained and
probably remanded from time to time by the often un-
Scrupulous judges, who are so badly paid by the govern-
ment that they have to depend upon the fees of suitors
for their support, and are often open to corruption.
These rides and strolls into the woods were very fruitful
in natural-history acquisitions and observation. I shall
give an account of some of those made in the immediate
icinity of Santo Domingo, and I wish I could transfer to
106 TEIE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
my readers some of the pleasure that they afforded me.
They gave the relief that enabled me to carry on for years
an incessant struggle, under great difficulties, to bring the
mines into a paying state, continually hampered for want
of sufficient capital, with most inadequate machinery, and
all the annoyances, delays, and disappointments inevi-
table in carrying on such a precarious enterprise as gold-
mining far in the interior of a half-civilised country.
The brook that ran at the foot of the bank below my
house, and there called the “Quebrada de Santo Do-
mingo,” is dignified half a mile lower down, after pass-
ing the mines of the Javali Company and receiving the
waters of another brook coming down from the westward,
by the name of the Javali river. The Indians, however,
both at the Indian village of Carca, seven miles back in
the mountains, and those even lower down the river itself,
call it “Artigua.” The preservation of these old Indian
names is important, as they might sometime or other throw
considerable light on the early inhabitants of the country.
In all parts of the world the names of mountains, valleys,
lakes, and rivers are among the most certain memorials
of the ancient inhabitants. The reason the names of the
natural features of a country remain unchanged under
the sway of successive nations, speaking totally different
languages, appears to be this. The successful invaders of
a country, even in the most cruel times, never extermi-
nated the people they conquered ; at the least, the young
women were spared. The conquerors established their
own language, and to everything they had known in their
own land they gave their own names; but for those quite
new to them, which nearly always included the moun-
tains, valleys, lakes, and rivers, and often the towns and
Ch. VII.] THE RIWULET ARTIGUA. 107
many of the natural productions, they accepted the names
from the survivors of the conquered people, instead of in-
venting new ones. Often the names were corrupted, the
new inhabitants altering them just a little, to render their
pronunciation easier, or to make them significant in their
own language. Thus the fruit of the Persea gratissima
was called “ahuacatl” by the ancient Mexicans; the
Spaniards corrupted it to “avocado,” which means an
advocate; and our sailors still further, to “alligator
pears.” The town of Comelapa, in Chontales, the
name of which means, in Spanish, “Eat a macaw,” is
undoubtedly a corruption of some old Indian name of
similar form to that of the not distant village of Comoapa,
although the Spaniards give an absurd explanation of it,
evidently invented, according to which it was so called
because a sick man was cured of a deadly disease by
eating the bird indicated.
The Artigua–I shall call it so, to do what I can to
save the name from oblivion—is wofully polluted by the
gold-mining on its banks, and flows, a dark muddy
stream, through the village of Santo Domingo, and just
below it precipitates itself one hundred and twenty feet
over a rocky fall. One of the forest roads leads down
its banks for several miles to some small clearings, where
a few scattered, Spanish-speaking Indians and half-
breeds cultivate maize and plantains. After leaving
Santo Domingo, it at first follows the left bank of the
stream, through low bushes and Small trees of Second
growth, then crosses a beautiful clear brook coming
down from the east, then, winding round a slope covered
with great trees and dense undergrowth, reaches the
site chosen for the machinery at Pavon, where a large
108 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
space had been cleared, much of which was covered with
grass. After descending a steep hill, the Artigua, with
its muddy water, was crossed. Here, in the dry season,
in the hot afternoons, the wet sandy banks were the
favourite resorts of multitudes of butterflies, that gathered
in great masses on particular moist spots in such num-
bers that with one swoop of my net I have enclosed
more than thirty in its gauzy folds. These butterflies
were principally different species of Callidryas, yellow
and white, mixed with brown and red species of Timetes,
which, when disturbed, rose in a body and circled about;
on the ground, looking like a bouquet; when rising, like
a fountain of flowers. In groups, by themselves, would
be five or six specimens of yellow and black Papilios,
greedily sucking up the moisture, and vibrating their
wings, now and then taking short flights and settling
again to drink. Hesperidae, too, abounded; and in a
favourable afternoon more than twenty different species
of butterflies might be taken at these spots, the finest
being a lovely white, green, and black swallow-tailed
Papilio, the first capture of which filled me with
delight. Near the river were some fallen-down wooden
sheds, partly overgrown with a red-flowered vine. Here
a large spider (Nephila) built strong yellow silken webs,
joined one on to the other, so as to make a complete
curtain of web, in which were entangled many large
butterflies, generally forest species, caught when flying
across the clearing. I was at first surprised to find that
the kinds that frequent open places were not caught,
although they abounded on low white-flowered shrubs
close to the webs; but, on getting behind them,
and trying to frighten them within the silken curtain,
Ch. VII.] g THE HELICONIDAE. 109
their instinct taught them to avoid it, for, although
startled, they threaded their way through open spaces
and between the webs with the greatest ease. It was
one instance of many I have noticed of the strong
instinct implanted in insects to avoid their natural
enemies. I shall mention two others. The Heliconidae,
a tribe of butterflies peculiar to tropical America, with
long, narrow, weak wings, are distasteful to most ani-
mals: I have seen even spiders drop them out of their
webs again; and Small monkeys, which are extremely
fond of insects, will not eat them, as I have proved
over and over again. Probably, in consequence of this
special protection, they have not needed stronger wings,
and hence their weak flight. They are also very bold,
allowing one to walk close up to flowers on which they
alight. There is one genus with transparent wings that
frequents the white-flowered shrubs in the clearing, and
I have sometimes advanced my hand within six inches
of them without frightening them. There is, however,
a yellow and black banded wasp that catches them to
store his nest with ; and whenever one of these came
about, they would rise fluttering in the air, where they
were safe, as I never saw the wasp attack them on the
wing. It would hawk round the groups of shrubs, trying
to pounce on One unawares; but their natural dread of
this foe made it rather difficult to do so. When it did
catch one, it would quietly bite off its wings, roll it up
into a ball, and fly off with it. Again, the cockroaches
that infest the houses of the tropics are very wary, as
they have numerous enemies—birds, rats, Scorpions, and
spiders: their long, trembling antennae are ever stretched
out, vibrating as if feeling the very texture of the air
110 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
around them ; and their long legs quickly take them
out of danger. Sometimes I tried to chase one of them
up to a corner where on the wall a large cockroach-
eating spider stood motionless, looking out for his prey;
the cockroach would rush away from me in the greatest
fear; but as soon as it came within a foot of its mortal
foe nothing would force it onwards, but back it would
double, facing all the danger from me rather than ad-
vance nearer to its natural enemy.
To return to the spiders: besides the large owner and
manufacturer of each web who was stationed near its
centre, there were on the outskirts several very small
ones, belonging, I think, to two different species, one of
which was probably the male of a Thomisus, the males in
this genus being much smaller than the females. I
sometimes threw a fly into one of the webs: the large
spider would seize it and commence sucking its blood.
The small ones, attracted by the sight of the prey, would
advance cautiously from the circumference, but generally
stop short about half-way up the web, evidently afraid to
come within reach of the owner; thus having to content
themselves with looking at the provisions, like hungry
urchins nosing the windows of an eating-house. Some-
times one would advance closer, but the owner would,
when it came within reach, quickly lift up one of its feet
and strike at it, like a feeding horse kicking at another
that came near its provender, and the little intruder
would have to retire discomfited. These little spiders
probably feed on minute insects entangled in the web,
too small for the consideration of the huge owner, to
whom they may be of assistance in clearing the web.
Soon after crossing the muddy Artigua below Pavon,
Ch. VII.] HUMMING-BIRDS. 111
a beautifully clear and sparkling brook is reached, coming
down to join its pure waters with the soiled river below.
In the evening this was a favourite resort of many birds
that came to drink at the pellucid stream, or catch
insects playing above the water. Amongst the last was
the beautiful blue, green, and white humming-bird
HUMMING-BIRDS.
(Florisuga mellivora, Linn.); the head and neck deep
metallic-blue, bordered on the back by a pure white
collar over the shoulders, followed by deep metallic-
green; on the underside the blue neck is succeeded by
green, the green from the centre of the breast to the end of
the tail by pure white; the tail can be expanded to a

112 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
half circle, and each feather widening towards the end
makes the semicircle complete around the edge. When
catching the ephemeridae that play above the water, the
tail is not expanded: it is reserved for times of court-
ship. I have seen the female sitting quietly on a branch,
and two males displaying their charms in front of her.
One would shoot up like a rocket, then suddenly ex-
panding the snow-white tail like an inverted parachute,
slowly descend in front of her, turning round gradually
to show off both back and front. The effect was height-
ened by the wings being invisible from a distance of a
few yards, both from their great velocity of movement
and from not having the metallic lustre of the rest of the
body. The expanded white tail covered more space than
all the rest of the bird, and was evidently the grand
feature in the performance. Whilst one was descending,
the other would shoot up and come slowly down ex-
panded. The entertainment would end in a fight be-
tween the two performers; but whether the most beautiful
or the most pugnacious was the accepted suitor, I know
not. Another fine humming-bird seen about this brook
was the long-billed, fire-throated Heliomaster pallidiceps,
Gould, generally seen probing long narrow-throated red
flowers, forming, with their attractive nectar, complete
traps for the small insects on which the humming-birds
feed, the bird returning the favour by carrying the
pollen of one flower to another. A third species, also
seen at this brook, PetaSophora delphinae, Less., is of a
dull brown colour, with brilliant purple ear-feathers and
metallic-green throat. Both it and Florisuga mellivora are
short billed, generally catching flying insects, and do not
frequent flowers so much as other humming-birds. I
Ch. VII.] TONGUE OF HUMMING-BIRDS. 113
have seen the Petasophora fly into the centre of a dancing
column of midges and rapidly darting first at one and
then at another Secure half a dozen of the tiny flies
before the column was broken up ; then retire to a
branch and wait until it was re-formed, when it made
another sudden descent on them. A fourth species
(Heliothria barroti, Bourc.), brilliant green above, white
below, with a shining purple crest, has also a short bill,
and I never saw it about flowers, but always hovering
underneath leaves and searching for the small soft-bodied
spiders that are found there. Two of them that I
examined, both had these spiders in their crops. I have
no doubt many humming-birds suck the honey from
flowers, as I have seen it exude from their bills when
shot; but others do not frequent them; and the principal
food of all is small insects. I have examined scores
of them, and never without finding insects in their crops.
Their generally long bills have been spoken of by some
naturalists as tubes into which they suck the honey by a
piston-like movement of the tongue; but suction in the
usual way would be just as effective; and I am satisfied
that this is not the primary use of the tongue, nor of
the mechanism which enables it to be exserted to a
great length beyond the end of the bill. The tongue, for
one-half of its length, is semi-horny and cleft in two,
-º-º-º:a E: -**
*------
Tongue of Humming-bird, with the blades a little opened.
the two halves are laid flat against each other when at
rest, but can be separated at the will of the bird and
form a delicate pliable pair of forceps, most admirably
#. T
1H4 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VII.
adapted for picking out minute insects from amongst the
stamens of the flowers. The woodpecker, which has a
similar extensile mechanism for exserting its tongue to a
great length, also uses it to procure its food—in its case
soft grubs from holes in rotten trees—and to enable it to
pull these out, the end of the tongue is sharp and horny,
and barbed with short stiff recurved bristles.
Tongue of large red-crested Woodpecker.
Continuing down the river, the road again crosses it,
and enters on the primeval forest almost untouched by
the hand of man, excepting in spots where the trees that
furnish the best charcoal have been cut down by the
charcoal-burners, or a gigantic isolated cedar (Cedrela
odorata) has been felled for shingles, bringing down in its
fall a number of the neighbouring trees entangled in
the great bush ropes. Such open spots, letting in the
sunshine into the thick forests, were favourite stopping-
places; for numerous butterflies frequent them, all
beautiful and most varied in their colours and marking.
The fallen trees, too, are the breeding-places of multitudes
of beetles, whose larvae riddle them with holes. Some
beetles frequent different varieties of timber, others are
peculiar to a single tree. The most noticeable of these
beetles are the numerous longicorns, to the collection of
which I paid a great deal of attention, and brought home
more than three hundred species. More than one-half
of these were new to science, and have been described by
Mr. Bates. To show how prolific the locality was in insect
life, I need only state that about two hundred and ninety



Ch. VII.] GIGANTIC ANTS. 115
of the species were taken within a radius of four miles,
having On one side the savannahs near Pital, on the
other the ranges around Santo Domingo. Some run
and fly only in the daytime, others towards evening and
in the short twilight; but the great majority issue from
their hiding-places only in the night-time, and during
the day lie concealed in withered leaves, beneath fallen
logs, under bark, and in crevices amongst the moss grow-
ing on the trunks of trees, or even against the bare
trunk, protected from observation by their mottled brown,
grey, and greenish tints—assimilating in colour and ap-
pearance to the bark of the tree. Up and down the
fallen timber would swiftly stalk gigantic black ants, one
inch in length, provided with most formidable stings, and
disdaining to run away from danger. They are slow and
stately in their movements, seeming to prey solely on the
slow-moving wood-borers, which they take at a great
disadvantage when half buried in their burrows, and bear
off in their great jaws. They appear to use their sting
only as a defensive weapon; but other smaller species
that hunt singly, and are very agile, use their stings to
paralyse their prey. I once saw one of these on the banks
of the Artigua chasing a wood-louse (Oniscus), very like
our common English species, on a nearly perpendicular
slope. The wood-louse, when the ant got near it, made
convulsive springs, throwing itself down the slope, whilst
the ant followed, coursing from side to side, and examin-
ing the ground with its vibrating antennae. The actions
of the wood-louse resembled that of the hunted hare
trying to throw the dog off its scent, and the ant was like
the dog in its movements to recover the trail. At last
the wood-louse reached the bottom of the slope, and
I 2
I 16 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
concealed itself amongst some leaves; but the ant soon
discovered it, paralysed it with a sting, and was run-
ning away with it, turned in, back downwards, beneath
itself, when I secured the hunter for my collection. All
these ants that hunt singly have the eyes well developed,
and thus differ greatly from the Ecitons, or army
ants.
The road, continuing down the Artigua, crosses it
again, winds away from it, then comes again to its bank
at a beautifully rocky spot overhung by trees; the banks
are there covered with plants and shrubs, and the rocks
with a great variety of ferns, whilst a babbling clear
brook comes down from the ranges to the right. Some
damp spots near the river are covered with a carpet of a
beautiful variegated, velvety-leaved plant (Cyrtodeira
chontalensis) with a flower like an achimenes, whilst the
dryer slopes bear melastoma and a great variety of
dwarf palms, amongst which the Sweetie (Geonoma sp.),
used for thatching houses, is the most abundant.
About here grows a species of cacao (Herrania purpurea)
differing from the cultivated species (Theobroma cacao).
Amongst the larger trees grows the “córtess,” having a
wood as hard as ebony, and at the end of March entirely
covered with brilliant yellow flowers, unrelieved by any
green, the tree casting its leaves before flowering. The
great yellow domes may be distinguished amongst the
dark green forest at the distance of five or six miles;
nearer at hand they are absolutely dazzling with their
foliage of gold, when the Sun is shining on them ;
and when they shed their flowers, the ground below is
carpeted with yellow. Another valuable timber tree, the
“nispera’’ (Achras Sapota), is also common, growing on
Ch. VII.] SPIDER-MONIKEYS. 117
the dryer ridges. It grows to a great size, and its timber
is almost indestructible; so that we used it in the con-
struction of all our permanent works. White ants do
not eat it, nor, excepting when first cut, and before it is
barked, do any of the wood-boring beetles. It bears a
round fruit about the size of an apple, hard and heavy
when green, and at this time is much frequented by the
large yellowish-brown spider-monkey (Ateles), which
roams over the tops of the trees in bands of from ten
to twenty. Sometimes they lay quiet until I was
passing underneath, when, shaking a branch of the
nispera tree, they would send down a shower of the hard.
round fruit; but fortunately I was never struck by them.
As soon as I looked up, they would commence yelping
and barking, and putting on the most threatening gestures,
breaking off pieces of branches and letting them fall, and
shaking off more fruit, but never throwing anything,
simply letting it fall. Often, when on lower trees, they
would hang from the branches two or three together, hold-
ing on to each other and to the branch with their fore feet
and long tail, whilst their hind feet hung down, all the
time making threatening gestures and cries. Sometimes
a female would be seen carrying a young one on its back,
to which it clung with legs and tail, the mother making
its way along the branches, and leaping from tree to tree,
apparently but little encumbered with its baby. A large
black and white eagle is said to prey upon them, but I
never saw one, although I was constantly falling in with
troops of the monkeys. Don Francisco Velasquez, one
of our officers, told me that one day he heard a monkey
crying out in the forest for more than two hours, and at
last, going to see what was the matter, he saw a monkey
118 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
on a branch and an eagle beside it trying to frighten it
to turn its back, when it would have seized it. The
monkey, however, kept its face to its foe, and the eagle
did not care to engage with it in this position, but
probably would have tired it out. Velasquez fired at the
eagle, and frightened it away. I think it likely, from
what I have seen of the habits of this monkey, that they
defend themselves from its attack by keeping two or three
together, thus assisting each other, and that it is only
when the eagle finds one separated from its companions
that it dares to attack it.
• Sometimes, but more rarely, a troop of the white-faced
cebus monkey would be fallen in with, rapidly running
away, throwing themselves from tree to tree. This
monkey feeds also partly on fruit, but is incessantly on
the look-out for insects, examining the crevices in trees
and withered leaves, seizing the largest beetles and
munching them up with greatest relish. It is also very
fond of eggs and young birds, and must play havoc
amongst the nestlings. Probably owing to its carnivorous
habits, its flesh is not considered so good by monkey-
eaters as that of the fruit-feeding spider-monkey; but I
never myself tried either. It is a very intelligent and
mischievous animal. I kept one for a long time as a pet,
and was much amused with its antics. At first, I had
it fastened with a light chain; but it managed to open
the links and escape several times, and then made straight
for the fowls' nests, breaking every egg it could get hold
of Generally, after being a day or two loose, it would
allow itself to be caught again. I tried tying it up with
a cord, and afterwards with a raw-hide thong, but had
to nail the end, as it could loosen any knot in a few
Ch. VII.] TRICKS OF A MONE EY. 3.19
minutes. It would sometimes entangle itself round a
pole to which it was fastened, and then unwind the coils
again with the greatest discernment. Its chain allowed
it to swing down below the verandah, but it could not
reach to the ground. Sometimes, when there were
broods of young ducks about, it would hold out a piece
of bread in one hand, and, when it had tempted a duck-
ling within reach, seize it by the other, and kill it with
a bite in the breast. There was such an uproar amongst
the fowls on these occasions, that we soon knew what was
the matter, and would rush out and punish Mickey (as
we called him) with a switch; so that he was ultimately,
cured of his poultry-killing propensities. One day, when
whipping him, I held up the dead duckling in front of
him, and at each blow of the light switch told him to
take hold of it, and at last, much to my surprise, he did
So, taking it and holding it tremblingly in one hand.
He would draw things towards him with a stick, and
even used a Swing for the same purpose. It had been
put up for the children, and could be reached by Mickey,
who now and then indulged himself in a swing on it.
One day, I had put down some bird-skins on a chair to
dry, far beyond, as I thought, Mickey’s reach; but, fer-
tile in expedients, he took the swing and launched if
towards the chair, and actually managed to knock the
skins off in the return of the swing, so as to bring them
within his reach. He also procured some jelly that was
set out to cool in the same way. Mickey’s actions were
very human-like. When any one came near to fondle
him, he never neglected the opportunity of pocket-
picking. He would pull out letters, and quickly take
them from their envelopes. Anything eatable disap-
120 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII.
peared into his mouth immediately. Once he abstracted
a small bottle of turpentine from the pocket of our medical
officer. He drew the cork, held it first to one nostril
then to the other, made a wry face, recorked it, and
returned it to the doctor. One day, when he got loose,
he was detected carrying off the cream-jug from the
table, holding it upright with both hands, and trying to
move off on his hind limbs. He gave the jug up without
spilling a drop, all the time making an apologetic grunt-
ing chuckle he often used when found out in any mis-
chief, and which always meant, “I know I have done
wrong, but don’t punish me; in fact, I did not mean to
do it, it was accidental.” Whenever, however, he saw
he was going to be punished, he would change his tone
to a shrill, threatening note, showing his teeth, and try-
ing to intimidate. He had quite an extensive vocabulary
of sounds, varying from a gruff bark to a shrill whistle;
and we could tell by them, without seeing him, when it
was he was hungry, eating, frightened, or menacing;
doubtless, one of his own species would have understood
various minor shades of intonation and expression that
we, not entering into his feelings and wants, passed over
as unintelligible. There is a third species of monkey
(Mycetes pal/iatus), called by the natives the congo, which
occasionally is heard howling in the forest; but they
are not often seen, as they generally remain quiet
amongst the upper branches of particular trees. One
day, when riding down this path, I came upon a pack
of pisotis (Nasua fusca, Desm.), a raccoon-like animal,
that ascends all the small trees, searching for birds’
nests and fruits. There were not less than fifty in the
pack I saw, and nothing seemed likely to escape their
Ch. VII.] CUTASSOW BIRDS. 121
Search in the track they were travelling. Sometimes
Solitary specimens of the pisoti are met with, hunting
alone in the forest. I once saw one near Juigalpa,
ascending tree after tree, and climbing every branch,
apparently in search of birds' nests. They are very
fond of eggs; and the tame ones, which are often kept
as pets, play havoc amongst the poultry when they
get loose. They are about the size of a hare, with a
taper snout, strong tusks, a thick hairy coat, and bushy
tail.
When passing down this road, I sometimes saw the
fine curl-crested curassow (Craa, globicera), as large as a
turkey, jet black, excepting underneath. This kind
would always take to the trees, but was easy to shoot,
and as good eating as it was noble in appearance. The
female is a very different-looking bird from the male,
being of a fine brown colour. Dr. Sclater, in a paper
read before the Zoological Society of Tondon, June 17th,
1873, showed that in the South and central American
species of Craa, there is a complete gradation from a
species in which the sexes scarcely differ, through others
in which they differ more and more, until in Craa,
globicera they are quite distinctly coloured, and have been
described as different species. The natives call them
“pavónes,” and often keep them tame; but I never
heard of them breeding in confinement. Another fine
game bird is a species of Penelope, called by the natives
“pávos. It feeds on the fruits of trees, and I never
saw it feeding on the ground. A similar, but much
smaller, bird, called “chachalabes,” is often met with in
the low scrub.
Mountain hens (species of Tinamus) were not un-
I22 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VII.
common, about the size of a plump fowl, and tasting like
a pheasant. There were also two species of grouse and
a ground pigeon, all good eating.
Amongst the smaller birds were trogons, mot-mots,
toucans, and woodpeckers. The trogons are general
feeders. I have taken from their crops the remains of
fruits, grasshoppers, beetles, termites, and even small
crabs and land shells. Three species are not uncommon
in the forest around Santo Domingo. In all of them the
females are dull brown or slaty black on the back and
neck, these parts being beautiful bronze green in the
male. The largest species (Trogon massena, Gould) is
one foot in length, dark bronze green above, with the
Smaller wing feathers speckled white and black, and the
belly of a beautiful carmine. Sometimes it sits on a
branch above where the army ants are foraging below;
and when a grasshopper or other large insect flies up
and alights on a leaf, it darts after it, picks it up, and
returns to its perch. I sometimes found them breaking
into the nests of the termites with their strong bills, and
eating the large soft-bodied workers; and it was from
the crop of this species that I took the remains of a small
crab and a land shell (Helicina). Of the two smaller
species, one (Trogon atricollis, Wiell.) is bronze green
above, with speckled black and white wings, belly
yellow, and under feathers of the tail white, barred with
black. The other (Trogon caligatus, Gould) is rather
Smaller, of similar colours, excepting the head, which is
black, and a dark blue collar round the neck. Both
species take short, quick, jerky flights, and are often met
with along with flocks of other birds—fly-catchers,
tanagers, creepers, Woodpeckers, &c., that hunt together,
Ch. VII.] WOODIPECKERS AND MOT-MOTS. 123
traversing the forests in flocks of hundreds together,
belonging to more than a score different species; so that
Whilst they are passing over, the trees seem alive with them.
Mr. Bates has mentioned similar gregarious flocks met
with by him in Brazil; and I never went any distance into
the Woods around Santo Domingo without seeing them.
The reason of their association together may be partly for
|protection, as no rapacious bird or mammal could approach
the flock without being discovered by one or other of them,
but the principal reason appears to be that they play into
each other's hands in their search for food. The creepers
and Woodpeckers and others drive the insects out of their
hiding-places under bark, amongst moss, and in withered
leaves. The fly-catchers and trogons sit on branches, and
fly after the larger insects, the fly-catchers taking them
on the wing, the trogons from off the leaves on which
they have settled. In the breeding season, the trogons
are continually calling out to each other, and are thus
easily discovered. They are called “viduas,” that is,
“widows,” by the Spaniards.
Woodpeckers are often seen along with the hunting
flocks of birds, especially a small one (Centrurus pucherani,
Mahl), with red and yellow head and speckled back.
This species feeds on fruits, as well as on grubs taken out
of dead trees. A large red-crested species is common
near recently-made clearings, and I successively met with
one of an elegant chocolate-brown colour, and another
brown with black spots on the back and breast, with a
lighter-coloured crested head (Celeus castaneus, Wagl.).
Of the mot-mots, I met with four species in the forest,
all more or less olive green in colour (Momotus martil
and lessoni, and Prionyrhynchus carinatus and platyrhyn-
124 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VII.
chus), having two of the tail-feathers very long, with
the shafts denuded about an inch from the end. The
mot-mots have all hoarse croak-like cries, heard at a
great distance in the forest, and feed on large.beetles
and other insects.
The toucans are very curious-looking birds, with their
enormous bills. They hop with great agility amongst
the branches. The largest species at Santo Domingo
was the Rhamphastus tocard, Vieill., twenty-three inches
in length, of which one-fourth was taken up by the long
bill and another fourth by the tail; above, all black,
excepting the tail-coverts, which are white; below,
throat and breast clear lemon yellow, bordered with red,
the rest black, excepting the under tail-coverts, red.
When alive, the bill is beautifully painted with red,
brown, and yellow. I kept a young one for some time as
a pet until it was killed by my monkey. It became very
tame, and was expert in catching cockroaches, swallowing
them with a jerk of its bill.
After passing through some low scrubby forest, very
thick with tangled second growth, the clearings of the
mestizoes were reached, about five miles below Santo
Domingo. Maize, plantains, and a few native veget-
ables were grown here, and the owners now and then
came up to the village to sell their produce. Their
houses were open-sided low huts, thatched with palm-
leaves, and all their furniture rude ; bedsteads made out
of a few rough poles, tied together with bark, supported
on crotches stuck in the ground, with raw-hides stretched
across them; their cooking utensils a tortilla-stone and a
few coarse earthenware jars and pans; their clothing
dirty cotton rags. This was the limit of my journeys in
Ch. VII] SECOND-GROWTH FOREST. 125
this direction, although the path continued on to the
savannahs towards San Thomas. The soil at this place
is good, and I think that it has been long cultivated, as
much of the forest appears of second growth, amongst
which small palms and prickly shrubs are abundant.
CHAPTER VIII.
Description of Sam Antonio Valley—Great variety of animal life—
Pitcher-flowered Marcgravias — Flowers fertilized by Hum-
ming-birds—By Insects—Provision in some flowers to prevent
insects, not adapted for carrying the pollen, from obtaining
access to the nectaries—Stories about Wasps—Humming-birds
bathing—Singular Myriapods—Ascent of Peña Blanca—Tapirs
and Jaguars—Summit of Peña Blanca.
ON the northern side of the Santo Tomingo valley, op-
posite to my house, a branch valley came down from the
north, which we called the San Antonio Valley. It inter-
sected all the lodes we were working, and I constructed a
tramway up it as far as the most northern mine, called San
Benito, by which we brought down the ore to the stamps
and the firewood for the steam-engine, and in a short time
we had cleared all the timber from the lower part of the
valley; and a dense Scrub or second growth sprang up,
through which numerous paths were made by the wood-
cutters. I was almost daily up this valley, visiting the
mines, or in the evening after the workmen had left, and
on Saturday afternoons, when they discontinued work at
two o'clock. On Sundays, too, it was our favourite walk,
for the tramway was dry to walk on ; there were tunnels,
mines, and sheds at various parts to get into if one of the
sudden heavy showers of rain came on ; and there were
always flowers or insects, or birds to claim one's atten-
tion. I planned the whole of the tramway; the upper
Ch. VIII.] ANT-THRUSHES AND BEETLES. 127
half I surveyed and levelled myself; and my almost
daily walks up it familiarised me with every bush and
fallen log by its side, and with every turn of the clear
cool brook that came prattling down over the stones,
soon at the machinery to lose its infantile purity, be
Soiled in the ceaseless search for gold, and never to
regain its first freshness until it reached the great
OC63.11.
The sides of the valley rose steeply, and a fair view
was obtained from the tramway in the centre over the
shrubs and Small trees on each side, so that the walk was
not so hemmed in with foliage as is usual in the forest
roads. Insects were plentiful by this path. In some parts
brown tiger beetles ran or flew with great swiftness; in
others, leaf-cutting ants in endless trains carried along
their burdens of foliage, looking, as they marched along
with the segments of leaves, held up vertically, like green
butterflies, or a mimic representation of a moving Birmam
wood. Sometimes the chirping of the ant-thrushes drew
attention to where a great body of army-ants were
foraging amongst the fallen branches, sending the spiders,
cockroaches, and grasshoppers fleeing for their lives, only
to fall victims to the surrounding birds. On the fallen
branches and logs I obtained many longicorn beetles;
the woodcutters brought me many more, and from this
valley were obtained some of the rarest and finest species
in my collection. On the myrtle-like flowers of some of
the shrubs, large green cockchafers were to be found
during the dry season, and a bright green rosechafer was
also common. I was surprised to find on two occasions
a green and brown bug (Pentatoma punicea) sucking the
juices from dead specimens of this species. The bug has
#28 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
weak limbs, and the beetle is more than twice its size
and weight, and is very active, quickly taking wing; so
that the only way in which it could have been overcome
that I can think of, is by the bug creeping up when it
was sleeping, quietly introducing the point of its sharp
proboscis between the rings of its body and injecting
some stupifying poison. In both instances that I wit-
nessed, the bug was on a leaf up a shrub, with the bulky
beetle hanging over suspended on its proboscis. Other .
species of bugs certainly inject poisonous fluids. One
black and red species in the forest, if taken in the hand,
would thrust its sharp proboscis into the skin, and pro-
duce a pain worse than the sting of a wasp. Amongst
the bushes were always to be found the beautiful scarlet
and black tanager (Rhamphocaelus passerinii, Bp.), and
more rarely another species (R. Sanguinolentus, Less.).
Along with these, a brownish-coloured bird, reddish on
the breast and top of the head (Phoenicothraupis fusi-
cauda, Cab.), flew in small sociable flocks; whilst gene-
rally somewhere in the vicinity, as evening drew on, a
brown hawk might be seen up some of the low trees,
watching the thoughtless chirping birds, and ready to
pounce down when opportunity offered. Higher up the
valley more trees were left standing, and amongst these
small flocks of other birds might often be found, one
green with red head (Calliste lavinia, Cass.); another,
shining green, with black head (Chlorophanes guatema-
Žensis); and a third, beautiful black, blue, and yellow,
with yellow head (Calliste larvata, Du Bus.). These and
many others were certain to be found where the climbing
Marcgravia nepenthoides expanded its curious flowers. The
flowers of this lofty climber are disposed in a circle,
Ch. VIII.] FLOWERS FERTILIZED BY BIRDS. 129
hanging downwards, like an inverted candelabrum. From
the centre of the circle of flowers is suspended a number
of pitcher-like vessels, which, when the flowers expand,
in February and March, are filled with a sweetish liquid.
This liquid attracts insects, and the insects numerous
FLOWER OF MARCGRAVIA NE PEN THOIDES.
insectivorous birds, including the species I have men-
tioned and many kinds of humming-birds. The flowers
are so disposed, with the stamens hanging downwards,
that the birds, to get at the pitchers, must brush against
them, and thus convey the pollen from one plant to
another. A second species of Marcgravia that I found
in the woods around Santo Domingo has the pitchers
placed close to the pedicels of the flowers, so that the
birds must approach them from above ; and in this
species the flowers are turned upwards, and the pollen is
brushed off by the breasts of the birds. In temperate

IQ
I 30 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
latitudes we find many flowers fertilised by insects
attracted by honey-bearing nectaries; and in tropical
America not only bees, moths, and other large insects
carry the pollen from one flower to another, but many
flowers, like the Marcgravia, are specially adapted to
secure the aid of small birds, particularly humming-birds,
for this purpose. Amongst these, the “palosabre,” a
species of Erythrina, a small tree, bearing red flowers,
FLOWER OF PALOSABRE.
that grew in this valley, near the brook, often drew my
attention. The tree blooms in February, and is at the
time leafless, so that the large red flowers are seen from
a great distance. Each flower consists of a single long,
rather fleshy petal, doubled over, flattened, and closed,
excepting a small opening on one edge, where the
stamens protrude. Only minute insects can find access
to the flower, which secretes at the base a honey-like
fluid. Two long-billed humming-birds frequent it ; one
(Heliomaster pallidiceps, Gould), which I have already
mentioned, is rather rare; the other (Phaethornis longi-
rostris, De Latt.) might be seen at any time when the
tree was in bloom, by watching near it for a few minutes.
It is mottled brown above, pale below, and the two
middle tail feathers are much longer than the others.
The bill is very long and curved, enabling the bird easily
to probe the long flower, and with its extensile cleft
tongue pick up the minute insects from the bottom of

Ch. VIII.] FOXCELOWE AND HUMIBILE-B.E.E. 131
the tube, where they are caught as if in a trap, their
only way of exit being closed by the bill of the bird.
Whilst the bird is probing the flower, the pollen of the
stamens is rubbed in to the lower part of its head, and
thus carried from one flower to fecundate another. The
bottom of the flower is covered externally with a thick,
fleshy calyx—an effectual guard against the attempts of
bees or wasps to break through to get at the honey.
Humming-birds feed on minute insects, and the honey
would only be wasted if larger ones could gain access
to it, but in the flower of the palosabre this contingency
is simply and eompletely guarded against.
Many flowers have contrivances for preventing useless
insects from obtaining access to the nectaries. Amongst
our English flowers there are scores of interesting
examples, and I shall describe the fertilisation of one,
the common foxglove, on account of the exceeding sim-
plicity with which this object is effected, and to draw the
attention of all lovers of nature to this other branch of a
subject on which the labours of Darwin and other natu-
ralists have of late years thrown a flood of light. The
pollen of the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is carried from
one flower to another by the humble bee, who, far more
than the hive bee, that “improves each shining hour,”
deserves to be considered the type of steady, persevering
industry. It improves not only the hours of Sunshine,
but those of cloud, and even rain ; and, long before the
honey-bee has ventured from its door, is at work bustling
from flower to flower, its steady hum changing to an
important Squeak as it rifles the blossoms of their sweets.
The racemes of purple bells held up by the foxglove are
methodically visited by it, commencing at the bottom
R 2
f 32 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
flower, and ascending step by step to the highest. The
four stamens and the pistil of the foxglove are laid
closely against the upper side of the flower. First a
stamen on one side opens its anthers and exposes its
pollen. The humble-bee, as it bustles in, brushes this
off. Then another stamen exposes its pollen on the
other side, then another and another; but not till all the
pollen has been brushed off does the cleft-end of the
pistil open, and expose its viscid stigma. The humble-
bee brushes off the pollen into its hairy coat from the
upper flowers of one raceme and carries it direct to the
lowest flowers of another, where the viscid stigmas are
open and ready to receive it. If the humble-bee went
first to the upper flowers of the spike and proceeded
downwards, the whole economy of this plant to procure
cross fertilisation would be upset.* The open flower of
the foxglove hangs downwards. The lower part, or
dilated opening of the tube, is turned outwards, and has
scattered stiff hairs distributed over its inner surface ;
above these the inside of the flower hangs almost perpen-
dicularly, and is smooth and pearly. The large humble-
bee bustles in with the greatest ease, and uses these hairs
as footholds whilst he is sucking the honey; but the smaller
bees are impeded by them, and when, having at last strug-
gled through them, they reach the pearly, slippery precipice
above, they are completely baffled. I passed the autumn
* Darwin mentions having seen humble bees visiting the flower-
ing spikes of the Spiranthes autumnalis (ladies’ tresses), and notices
that they always commenced with the bottom flowers, and crawling
spirally up sucked one flower after the other, and shows how this
proceeding ensures the cross fertilisation of different plants.—“ Fer-
tilisation of Orchids,” 127.
Ch. VIII. SPIDERS THE PREY OF WASPs. 133
of 1857 in North Wales, where the foxglove was very
abundant, and watched the flowers throughout the
Season, but only once saw a small bee reach the nectary,
though many were seen trying in vain to do so.
Great attention has of late years been paid by natu-
ralists to the wonderful contrivances amongst flowers to
Secure cross fertilisation; but the structure of many
cannot, I believe, be understood, unless we take into
consideration not only the beautiful adaptations for
Securing the services of the proper insect or bird, but also
the contrivances for preventing insects that would not be
useful from obtaining access to the nectar. Thus the
immense length of the Angraecum sesquipedale of Mada-
gascar might, perhaps, have been more easily explained
by Mr. Wallace, if this important purpose had been
taken into account. -
The tramway in some parts was on raised ground, in
others excavated in the bank side. In the cuttings the
nearly perpendicular clay slopes were frequented by
many kinds of wasps that excavated round holes of the
diameter of their own bodies, and stored them with sting-
paralysed spiders, grasshoppers, or horse-flies. Amongst
these they lay their eggs, and the white grubs that issue
therefrom feed on the poor prisoners. I one day saw a
small black and yellow banded wasp (Pompilus polistoides)
hunting for spiders; it approached a web where a spider
was stationed in the centre, made a dart towards it—ap-
parently a feint to frighten the spider clear of its web ; at
any rate it had that effect, for it fell to the ground, and
was immediately seized by the wasp, who stung it, then
ran quickly backwards, dragging the spider after it, up a
134 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VIII.
branch reaching to the ground until it got high enough,
when it flew heavily off with it. It was so small, and
the spider so heavy, that it probably could not have
raised it from the ground by flight. All over the world
there are wasps that store their nests with the bodies of
spiders for their young to feed on. In Australia, I often
witnessed a wasp combating with a large flat spider that
is found on the bark of trees. It would fall to the
ground, and lie On its back, so as to be able to grapple
with its opponent; but the wasp was always the victor in
the encounters I saw, although it was not always allowed
to carry its prey off in peace. One day, sitting on the sand-
banks on the coast of Hobson's Bay, I saw one dragging
along a large spider. Three or four inches above it
hovered two minute flies, keeping a little behind, and
advancing with it. The wasp seemed much disturbed
by the presence of the tiny flies, and twice left its prey
to fly up towards them, but they darted away immedi-
ately. As soon as the wasp returned to the spider, there
they were hovering over and following it again. At last,
unable to drive away its small tormentors, the wasp
reached its burrow and took down the spider, and the
two flies stationed themselves one on each side the
entrance, and would, doubtless, when the Wasp went
away to seek another victim, descend and lay their own
eggs in the nest.
The variety of wasps, as of all other insects, was very
great around Santo Domingo. Many made papery nests,
hanging from the undersides of large leaves. Others
hung their open cells underneath verandahs and eaves of
houses. One large black one was particularly abundant
about houses, and many people got stung by them.
Ch. VIII.] INSTINCT AT FAULT. 135
They also build their pendant nests in the orange and
lime trees, and it is not always safe to gather the fruit.
Fortunately they are heavy flyers, and can often be
struck down or evaded in their attacks. They do good
where there are gardens, as they feed their young on
caterpillars, and are continually hunting for them.
Another species, banded brown and yellow (Polistes
carniſea), has similar habits, but is not so common.
Bates, in his account of the habits of the sand-wasps at
Santarem, Ön the Amazon, gives an interesting account
of the way in which they took a few turns in the air
around the hole they had made in the sand before
leaving to seek for flies in the forest, apparently to mark
well the position of the burrow, so that on their return
they might find it without difficulty. He remarks that
this precaution would be said to be instinctive, but that
the instinct is no mysterious and unintelligible agent, but
a mental process in each individual differing from the
same in man only by its unerring certainty.” I had an
opportunity of confirming his account of the proceedings
of wasps when quitting a locality to which they wished
to return, in all but their unerring certainty. I could not
help noting how similar they were to the way in which
a man would act who wished to return to some spot not
easily found out, and with which he was not previously
acquainted. A specimen of the Polistes carnifew was
hunting about for caterpillars in my garden. I found
one about an inch long, and held it out towards it on the
point of a stick. It seized it immediately, and com-
menced biting it from head to tail, soon reducing the soft
body to a mass of pulp. It rolled up about one-half of
* “Naturalist on the Amazon,” p. 222.
136 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
it into a ball, and prepared to carry it off. Being at
the time amidst a thick mass of a fine-leaved climbing
plant, it proceeded, before flying away, to take note of
the place where it was leaving the other half. To do
this, it hovered in front of it for a few seconds, then took
Small circles in front of it, then larger ones round the
whole plant. I thought it had gone, but it returned
again, and had another look at the opening in the dense
foliage down which the other half of the caterpillar lay.
It then flew away, but must have left its burden for dis-
tribution with its comrades at the nest, for it returned in
less than two minutes, and making one circle around the
bush, descended to the opening, alighted on a leaf, and
ran inside. The green remnant of the caterpillar was
lying on another leaf inside, but not connected with the
one on which the wasp alighted, so that in running in it
missed it, and soon got hopelessly lost in the thick
foliage. Coming out again, it took another circle, and
pounced down on the same spot again, as soon as it came
opposite to it. Three small seed-pods, which here grew
close together, formed the marks that I had myself
taken to note the place, and these the wasp seemed also
to have taken as its guide, for it, flew directly down to
them, and ran inside; but the small leaf on which the
fragment of caterpillar lay, not being directly connected
with any on the outside, it again missed it, and again
got far away from the object of its search. It then flew
out again, and the same process was repeated again and
again. Always when in circling round it came in sight
of the seed-pods down it pounced, alighted near them,
and recommenced its quest on foot. I was surprised at
its perseverance, and thought it would have given up the
Ch. VIII.] FIUMMING-BIRDS. 137
Search; but not so, it returned at least half-a-dozen
times, and seemed to get angry, hurrying about with
buzzing wings. At last it stumbled across its prey,
seized it eagerly, and as there was nothing more to come
back for, flew straight off to its nest, without taking
any further note of the locality. Such an action is not
the result of blind instinct, but of a thinking mind; and
it is wonderful to see an insect so differently constructed
using a mental process similar to that of man. It is
suggestive of the probability of many of the actions of
insects that we ascribe to instinct being the result of the
possession of reasoning powers.
Where the tramway terminated at San Benito mine,
the valley had greatly contracted in width, and the
stream, excepting in time of flood, had dwindled to a
little rill. A small rough path, made by the miners to
bring in their timber, continued up the brook, crossing
and recrossing it. The sides of the valley were very
steep, and covered with trees and undergrowth. The
foliage arched over the water, forming beautiful little
dells, with small, clear pools of water. One of these was
a favourite resort of humming-birds, who came there to
bathe, for these gem-like birds are very frequent in their
ablutions, and I spent many a half-hour in the evenings
leaning against a trunk of a tree that had fallen across
the stream four or five yards below the pool, and watching
them. At all times of the day they occasionally came
down, but during the short twilight there was a mass of
bathers, and often there were two or three at one time
hovering over the pool, which was only three feet across,
and dipping into it. Some would delay their evening
toilet until the shades of night were thickening, and it
i 38 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
became almost too dark to distinguish them from my
stand. Three species regularly frequented the pool, and
three others occasionally visited it. The commonest was
the Thaſurania venusta (Gould), the male of which is a
most beautiful bird, the front of the head and shoulders
glistening purple, the throat brilliant light green, shining
in particular lights like polished metal, the breast blue,
and the back dark green. It was a beautiful sight to
See this bird hovering over the pool, turning from side to
side by quick jerks of its tail, now showing its throat a
gleaming emerald, now its shoulders a glistening amethyst,
then darting beneath the water, and rising instantly,
throw off a shower of spray from its quivering wings,
and again fly up to an overhanging bough and commence
to preen its feathers. All humming-birds bathe on the
wing, and generally take three or four dips, hovering,
between times, about three inches above the surface.
Sometimes when the last-mentioned species was sus-
pended over the water, its rapidly vibrating wings look-
ing like a mere film, a white speck, like a snow-flake,
shot down the valley swift as the flight of an arrow, and
stopped suddenly over the pool, startling the emerald-
throat, and frightening it up amongst the overhanging
branches. The intruder was the white-cap (Microchera
parvirostris, Lawr.), the smallest of thirteen different
kinds of humming-birds that I noticed around Santo
Domingo; being only a little more than two and a half
inches in length, including the bill; but it was very pug-
nacious, and I have often seen it drive some of the larger
birds away from a flowering tree. Its body is purplish-
red, with green reflections, the front of its head flat, and
pearly white, and, when flying towards one, its white
Ch. VIII.] NOTES OF HIUMMING-BIRDS. 139
head is the only part seen. Sometimes the green-throat
would hold its ground, and then it was comical to see
them hovering over the water, jerking round from side
to side, eyeing each other suspiciously, the one determin-
ing to dip, but apparently afraid to do so, for fear the
other would take a mean advantage, and do it some
mischief whilst under water; though what harm was
possible I could not see, as there were no clothes to steal.
I have seen timid bathers acting just like the birds,
though from a different cause, bobbing down towards the
water, but afraid to dip overhead; and the idea of comi-
cality arose, as it does in most of the ludicrous actions of
animals, from their resemblance to those of mankind.
The dispute would generally end by the green-throat
giving way, and leaving the pugnacious little white-cap
in possession of the pool.
Besides the humming-birds I have mentioned, there
were four or five other small ones that we used to call
Squeakers, as it is their habit for a great part of the day
to sit quietly on branches and every now and then to
chirp out one or two shrill notes. At first I thought
these sounds proceeded from insects, as they resemble
those of crickets; but they are not so continuous. After
a while I got to know them, and could distinguish the
notes of the different species. It was not until then I
found out how full the woods are of humming-birds, for
they are most difficult to see when perched amongst the
branches, and when flying they frequent the tops of
trees in flower, where they are indistinguishable. I
have sometimes heard the different chirps of more than
a dozen individuals, although unable to get a glimpse
of one of them, as they are mere brown specks on the
140 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
branches, their metallic colours not showing from below,
and the sound of their chirpings—or rather squeakings—
is most deceptive as to their direction and distance from
the hearer. My conclusion, after I got to know their
voices in the woods, was that the humming-birds around
Santo Domingo equalled in number all the rest of the birds
together, if they did not greatly exceed them. Yet one
may sometimes ride for hours without seeing one. They
build their nests on low shrubs—often on branches over-
hanging paths, or on the underside of the large leaves of
the shrubby palm-trees. They are all bold birds, suffer-
ing you to approach nearer than any other kinds, and
often flying up and hovering within two or three yards
from you. This fearlessness is probably owing to the great
Security from foes that their swiftness of flight ensures
to them. I have noticed amongst butterflies that the
Swiftest and strongest flyers, such as the Hesperidae, also
allow you to approach much nearer to them than those
with weaker wings, feeling confident that they can dart
away from any threatened danger—a misplaced con-
fidence, however, so far as the net of the collector is
concerned. - six
At the head of the tramway, near the entrance to the
San Benito mine, we planted about three acres of the
banks of the valley with grass. In clearing away the
fallen logs and brushwoods, many beetles, Scorpions, and
centipedes were brought to light. Amongst the last was
a curious species belonging to the sucking division of the
Myriapods (Sugantia, of Brandt), which had a singular
method of securing its prey. It is about three inches
long, and sluggish in its movements; but from its tubular
mouth it is able to discharge a viscid fluid to the distance
Ch. VIII.] CATTLE PASTURE. 141
of about three inches, which stiffens on exposure to the
air to the consistency of a spider's web, but stronger.
With this it can envelope and capture its prey, just as a
fowler throws his net over a bird. The order of Myriapoda
is placed by systematists at the bottom of the class of
insects; the sucking Myriapods are amongst the lowest
forms of the order, and it is singular to find one of these
lowly organised species furnished with an apparatus of
such utility, and the numberless higher forms without
any trace of it. Some of the other centipedes have two
phosphorescent spots in the head, which shine brightly
at night, casting a greenish light for a little distance in
front of them. I do not know the use of these lights,
but think that they may serve to dazzle and allure the
insects on which they prey. We planted two kinds of
grasses, both of which have been introduced into Nica-
ragua within the last twenty years. They are called
Pará and Guinea grasses, I believe, after the places from
which they were first brought. The former is a strong
succulent grass, rooting at the joints; the latter grows in
tufts, rising to a height of four to five feet. Both are
greatly liked by cattle and mules; large bundles were
cut every day for the latter whilst they were at work
on the tramway, and they kept in good condition on it
without other food. The natural, indigenous grass
that springs up in clearings in the neighbouring forest is
a creeping species, and is rather abundant about Santo
Domingo. It has a bitter taste, and cattle do not thrive
on it, but rapidly fall away in condition if confined to it.
They do better when allowed to roam about the outskirts
of the forest amongst the brushwood, as they browse on
the leaves of many of the bushes. This grass is not
142 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
found far outside the forest, but is replaced on the
savannahs by a great variety of tufted grasses, which
seem gradually to overcome the creeper in the clearings
on the edge of the forest; but at Santo Domingo the
latter was predominant, and although I sowed the seeds
of other grasses amongst it, they did not succeed, on
account of the cattle pecking them out and eating them
in preference to the other.
There were many other paths leading in different
directions into the forest, but I shall describe one of
them, as it differed from those already mentioned, leading
to the top of a bare rock, rising fully 1,000 feet above
Santo Domingo. *
This rock, on the southern and most perpendicular
side, weathers to a whitish colour, and is called Peña
Blanca, meaning the white peak. It is visible from
Some points on the Savannahs. During the Summer
months it is, on the northern side, covered with the
flowers of a caulescent orchid (Ornithorhynchos) that has
not been found anywhere else in the neighbourhood;
and the natives, who are very fond of flowers, inheriting
the taste from their Indian ancestors, at this time, often
On Sundays, go up to it and bring down large quantities
of the blossoms. Its colour, when it first opens, is
Scarlet and yellow. Amongst it grows a crimson Mack-
!eania. Once when I made an ascent, in March, these
flowers were in perfection, and in great abundance, and
the northern face of the rock was completely covered
with them. When I emerged from the gloomy forest,
the Sun was shining brightly on it, and the combination
of Scarlet, crimson, and yellow made a perfect blaze of
colour, approaching more nearly to the appearance of
Ch. VIII.] ASCENT OF PENA BLANCA. 143
flames and fire than anything else I have seen in the
floral world.
The last ascent I made to the summit of Peña Blanca
was in the middle of June, 1872, after we had had
about two weeks of continuously wet weather. At last,
on the 17th, the rain clouds cleared away, the sun
shone out, and only a few great fleecy cumuli sailed
across the blue sky, driven by the north-east trade
wind. I had on previous visits to the peak noticed the
elytra of many beetles lying on the bare top. They
were the remnants of insects caught by frogs, great
bulky fellows that excited one’s curiosity to know how
ever they got there. Amongst the elytra were those of
beetles that I had never taken, and as they were night-
roaming species, I determined to go up some evening
and wait until dark, with a lanthorn, to see if I could
take any of them. We had one heavy shower of rain
in the afternoon, so that the forest was very wet, and
the hills slippery and difficult for the mule. The path
ascends the valley of Santo Domingo, then crosses a .
range behind a mine called the “Consuelo,” enters the
forest, descending at first a steep slope to a clear brook;
after crossing this, the ascent of the hill of Peña Blanca
begins, and is continuous for about a mile to the top of
the rock. The ground was damp, and the forest
gloomy, but here and there glimpses of Sunshine glanced
through the trees, and enlivened the scene a little. I
startled a mountain hen (Tinamus, sp.), which whirred
off amongst the bushes like a grouse. The dry slopes
of hills are their favourite feeding-places, and around
Peña Blanca they are rather plentiful ; and so, also, in
their season, are the curassows and penelopes. In the
144 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
lower ground, the footmarks of the tapir are very
frequent, especially along the small paths, where I have
sometimes traced them for more than a mile. They are
harmless beasts. One of our men came across one near
Peña Blanca, and attacked and killed it with his knife.
He brought in the head to me. It was as large as that
of a bullock. I often tried to track them, but never suc-
ceeded in seeing one. One day in my eagerness to get
near what I believed to be one, I rushed into rather un-
pleasant proximity with a jaguar, the “tigre " of the
natives. I had just received a fresh supply of cartridge
cases for my breech-loader, and wishing to get some
specimens of the small birds that attend the armies of
the foraging ants, I made up three or four small charges
of No. 8 shot, putting in only a quarter of an ounce of
shot into each charge, so as not to destroy their
plumage. I went back into the forest along a path
where I had often seen the great footmarks of the
tapir. After riding about a couple of miles, I heard
the notes of some birds, and, dismounting, tied up my
mule, and pushed through the bushes. The birds were .
shy, and in following them I had got about fifty yards
from the path, to a part where the big trees were more
clear of brushwood, when I heard a loud hough in a
thicket towards the left. It was something between a
cough and a growl, but very loud, and could only have
been produced by a very large animal. Never having
seen or heard a jaguar before in the woods, and
having often seen the footprints of the tapir, I thought
it was the latter, and thinking I would have to get very
close up to it to do it any damage with my little charge
of small shot, I ran along towards the sound, which
Ch. VIII.] ENCOUNTER WITH A JAGUAR. 145
was continued at intervals of a few seconds. Seeing a
large animal moving amongst the thick bushes, only a
few yards from me, I stopped, when, to my amazement,
out stalked a great jaguar (like the housekeeper's rat,
the largest I had ever seen), in whose jaws I should
have been nearly as helpless as a mouse in those of a
cat. He was lashing his tail, at every roar showing his
great teeth, and was evidently in a bad humour,
Notwithstanding I was so near to him, I scarcely think
he saw me at first, as he was crossing the open glade
about twenty yards in front of me. I had not even a
knife with me to show fight if he attacked me, and my
Small charge of shot would not have penetrated beyond
his skin, unless I managed to hit him when he was very
near to me. To steady my aim, if he approached me, I
knelt down on one knee, supporting my left elbow on
the other. He was just opposite to me at the time, the
movement caught his eye, he turned half round, and
put down his neck and head towards the ground as if he
was going to spring, and I believe he could have cleared
the ground between us at a single bound, but the next
moment he turned away from me, and was lost sight
of amongst the bushes. I half regretted I had not fired
and taken my chance; and when he disappeared, I
followed a few yards, greatly chagrined that in the only
chance I had ever had of bagging a jaguar, I was not
prepared for the encounter, and had to let “I dare not,”
wait upon “I would.” I returned the next morning
with a supply of ball cartridges, but in the night it had
rained heavily, so that I could not even find the jaguar's
tracks, and although afterwards I was always prepared,
I never met with another. From the accounts of the
L
I 46 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
natives, I believe that in Central America he never
attacks man unless first interfered with, but when
wounded is very savage and dangerous. Velasquez
told me that his father had mortally wounded one,
which, however, sprang after him, and had got hold of
Him by the leg, when it fortunately fell down dead.
The path up Peña Blanca hill gets steeper and steeper,
until about fifty yards from the rock it is too precipitous
and rugged to ride with safety, so that the rest of the
ascent must be made on foot. Tying my mule to a
sapling, I scrambled up the path, and soon emerging
from the dark forest, stood under the grey face of
the rock towering up above me. The rock has two
peaks, of which the highest is accessible, footholds
having been cut into the face of it, and the most diffi-
cult part being surmounted by a rude ladder made by
cutting notches in a pole. Above it the rock is shelving,
and the top is easily reached. I found a strong north-
east wind blowing, which made it rather uncomfortable
on the top, but the view was very fine and varied. To
the South-east and east the eye roams over range
beyond range all covered with dark forest, that partly
hides the inequalities of the ground, the trees in the
hollows growing higher than those on the hills. On
this side the rock is a sheer precipice, going down per-
pendicularly for more than three hundred feet; the
face of the cliff all weathered white. The tops of the
trees are far below, and as one looks down upon them,
hearing the various cries and whistles of the birds
come up, and marking the vultures wheeling round in
aérial circles over the trees far below one's feet, one
realises that at last the forest, with its world of foliage,
Ch. VIII.] VIEW FROM THE PENA BLANCA. 147
has been surmounted. Dooking down on the tops of the
frees, every shade of green from nearly brown to yellow
meets the eye, here light as grass, there dark as holly,
whilst the fleecy clouds above cast lines of dark shadows
over hill and dale.
Directly south-east is a high rock, about three miles
distant, and beyond it the Carca and the Artigua rivers
must meet, judging from the fall of the country. The
course of the Carca is marked by some patches of light
green, that look like grass, and are probably clearings
made by the Indians.
To the south the eye first passes over about six miles
of forest, then savannahs and grassy ranges stretching to
the lake, which is only dimly seen, with the peaks of
Madera and Ometepec more distinct, the latter bearing
South-west by west. Alone on the summit of a high
peak, with surging green billows of foliage all around, dim
misty mountains in the distance below, and above the
blue heavens, checkered with fleecy clouds, that have tra-
velled up thousands of miles from the north-east, thoughts
arise that can be only felt in their full intensity amid
Solitude and nature’s grandest phases. Then man’s intel-
lect strives to grapple with the great mysteries of his
existence, and like a fluttering bird that beats itself against
the bars of its cage, falls back baffled and bruised.
Another shower of rain came on, quickly followed by
Sunshine again. Great banks of vapour began to rise
from the forest, and fill the valleys, and now looking down
over the precipice, instead of foliage there was a glisten-
ing white cloud spread out below, up through which
came the cries of birds. The hills stood up through
the cloud of mist like islands. To the South-west, over
L 2
148 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. VIII.
the savannahs, the air was clear, and the peak of
Ometepec was a fine object in the distance. A white
cloud enveloping its top looked like a snow-cap, and
this, as the night came on, descended lower and lower,
PENA BLANCA.
mantling closely around it, and conforming to its out-
line. That the savannahs should not give off the same
vapour as the forest has been ascribed, and, I believe,
with reason, to the fact that their evaporating surfaces
are much smaller than those of the latter, with their
numberless leaves heated by the previous sunshine.
As night came on, a wetting mist drove over the top
of the peak, and the wind increased in strength, making

Ch. VIII.] DESCENT OF THE PENA BLANCA, 149
it very cold and bleak, for there was no shelter of any
kind on the summit. Such a night was not a favourable
one for insects, but I got a few beetles that were new to
me on the very top of the rock, where only a few rushes
are growing. They appeared to be travelling with the
north-east trade wind, and were sifted out by the rushes
as they passed over. On a finer night I have no doubt
many species might be obtained. I suppose that the
wind was moving at the rate of not less than thirty
miles an hour, so that the beetles, when they got up to
it from the forest below, where it was comparatively
calm, might easily be carried hundreds of miles without
much labour to themselves. I added two fine new
Carabidae to my collection ; and about eleven o’clock
started back again, having many a fall on the slippery
steep before I reached the place where I had left my
mule. It was a very dark night, and the oil of my
small bull’s eye lanthorn was exhausted, but the mule
knew every step of the Way, and, though slipping often,
never fell, but carried me safely home.
CHAPTER IX.
Journey to Juigalpa-Description of Libertad—The Priest and the
Bell — Migratory Butterflies and Moths — Indian Graves —
Ancient Names—Dry River-beds–Monkeys and Wasps—Reach
Juigalpa-Ride in neighbourhood—Abundance of Small birds
—A poor Cripple—The “Toledo ’’—Trogons—Waterfall—Sepul-
chral Mounds—Broken Statues—The Sign of the Cross–Con-
trast between the ancient and the present inhabitants—Night
Life.
TowARDs the end of June, in 1872, I had to go to
Juigalpa, one of the principal towns of the province of
Chontales, on business connected with a lawsuit brought
against the mining company by a litigious native. I
started early in the morning, taking with me my native
boy, Rito, who carried on his mule behind him my
blankets and a change of clothes. I carried in my
hand a light fowling-piece. The roads through the
forest were excessively muddy, and it took us four hours
to get over the seven miles to Pital; the poor mules
struggling all the way through mud nearly three feet
deep. Shortly after leaving Pital, we passed the river
Mico ; and two miles further on, across some grassy
hills, reached the small town of Libertad. It is the
principal mining centre of Chontales. There are a great
number of gold mines in its vicinity, several of which
are worked by intelligent Frenchmen. The gold and
silver mines of Libertad are richer than those of Santo
Ch. IX.] THE CHURCEI BELLS. 151
Domingo, and many of the owners of them have ex-
tracted great quantities of the precious metals.
The town is situated near to the edge of the forest,
being separated by the Rio Mico, across which it is
proposed to build a wooden bridge, as during floods the
river is impassable. Whether the bridge will ever be
built or not I cannot tell. Several times rates have
been levied, and money collected to build it, but the
funds have always melted away in the hands of the
officials. There is an alcalde and a judge at Libertad.
|Every one worth two hundred dollars is liable to be
elected to the latter office. Only unimportant cases are
tried by him, and his decisions depend generally on the
private influence that is brought to bear upon him. He
is often a tool in the hands of some unprincipled lawyer.
The church at Libertad is a great barn-like edifice, with
tiled roof. At one side is a detached small bell-tower,
in which hang two bells, one sound and whole, the other
cracked and patched. The latter was a present from one
of the mining companies, and had excited a great
scandal. The mining company had a fine large bell,
with which they called together their workmen. The
priest of Libertad, thinking it might be much better
employed in the service of the church, made an applica-
tion for it. The superintendent of the mine could not
part with it, but having an old broken bell, he had it
patched up, and sent it out with a letter, explaining
that he could not let them have the other, but that if this
one was of any use, they were welcome to it. The
priest heard that the bell was on the road, and thinking
it was the one he had coveted, he got up a procession to
go and meet it, to take it to its place with befitting
152 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
Geremony. But when he saw the old battered and
broken article that had been sent, his satisfaction was
changed to rage, instead of blessing he cursed it, threw
it to the ground, and even kicked and spat upon it. His
rage at first knew no bounds, thinking that he had been
mocked by the heretical foreigners, and his indignation
was at first shared by some of the principal inhabitants
of the town, but when the explanatory letter had been
interpreted to them, their feelings changed, and the poor
bell was put up to do what duty it could. There are
Some good stores in Libertad, the best being branches of
Granada houses that buy the produce of the country—
hides, india-rubber, and gold—for export, and import
European manufactured goods.
Captain Velasquez joined me at Tibertad, and, after
getting breakfast, we started; the road passes over
grassy hills, on which feed cattle and mules. The edge
of the forest is not far distant to the right, and all the
way along it there have been clearings made and maize
planted. As we rode along, great numbers of a brown,
tailed butterfly (Timetes chiron) were flying over to the
south-east. They occurred, as it were, in columns. The
air would be comparatively clear of them for a few
hundred yards, then we would pass through a band
perhaps fifty yards in width, where hundreds were
always in sight, and all travelling one way. I took the
direction several times with a pocket compass, and it
was always south-east. Amongst them were a few
yellow butterflies, but these were not so numerous as in
former years. In Some seasons these migratory swarms
of butterflies continue passing over to the south-east for
three to five weeks, and must consist of millions upon
Ch. IX.] MIGRATIONS OF BUTTERFLIES. 153
millions of individuals, comprising many different
species and genera. The beautiful tailed green and
gilded day-flying moth (Urania Zeilus) also joins in this
annual movement. When in Brazil, I observed similar
flights of butterflies at Pernambuco and Maranham, all
travelling South-east. Mr. R. Spruce describes a migra-
tion which he witnessed on the Amazons, in November,
1849, of the common white and yellow butterflies. They
were all passing to the south-south-east.* Darwin
mentions that several times when off the shores of
Northern Patagonia, and at other times when some
miles off the mouth of the Plata, the ship was sur-
rounded by butterflies; so numerous were they on
one occasion, that it was not possible to see a space
free from them, and the seamen cried out that it was
“Snowing butterflies.”f These butterflies must also
come from the westward. I know of no satisfactory
explanation of these immense migrations. They occurred
every year whilst I was in Chontales, and always in the
same direction. I thought that some of the earlier
flights in April might be caused by the vegetation of the
Pacific side of the continent being still parched up,
whilst on the Atlantic slope the forests were green and
moist." But in June there had been abundant rains on
the Pacific side, and vegetation was everywhere growing
luxuriantly. Neither would their direction from the
north-west bring them from the Pacific, but from the
interior of Honduras and Guatemala. The difficulty is
that there are no return swarms. If they travelled in
one direction at one season of the year, and in an oppo-
* “Journal of the Linnaean Society,” vol. ix.
t “Naturalist's Voyage,” p. 158.
154 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
site at another, we might suppose that the vegetation on
which the caterpillars feed was at one time more abun-
dant in the north-west, at another in the south-east ;
but during the five years I was in Central America, I
was always on the look-out for them, and never saw any
return Swarms of butterflies, so that their migration
every year in one definite direction is quite unintelligible
to me.
We gradually ascended the range that separates the
water-shed of the Lake of Nicaragua from that of the
|Blewfields river, passing over grassy savannahs. About
two leagues from Libertad there are many old Indian
graves, covered with mounds of earth and stones. A
well-educated Englishman, Mr. Fairbairn, has taken up
his abode at this place, and is growing maize and rearing
cattle. There are many evidences of a large Indian
population having lived at this spot, and their pottery
and fragments of their stones for bruising maize have
been found in some graves that have been opened. Mr.
Fairbairn got me several of these curiosities, amongst
them are imitations of the heads of Armadillos, and other
animals. Some of these had formed the feet of urns,
others were rattles, containing small balls of baked clay.
The old Indians used these rattles in their solemn reli-
gious dances, and the custom is probably not yet quite
obsolete, for as late as 1823 Mr. W. Bullock saw, in
Mexico, Indian women dancing in a masque representing
the court of Montezuma, and holding rattles in their
right hands, to the noise of which they accompanied
their motions. Several stone axes have been found, which
are called “thunderbolts” by the natives, who have no idea
that they are artificial, although it is less than four hun-
Ch. IX.] ANCIENT INHABITANTS, 155
dred years ago since their forefathers used them. Like
most of the sites of the ancient Indian towns, the place
is a very picturesque one. At a short distance to the
West, rise the precipitous rocks of the Amerrique range,
with great perpendicular cliffs, and huge isolated rocks
and pinnacles. The name of this range gives us a clue
to the race of the ancient inhabitants. In the highlands
of Honduras, as has been noted by Squiers, the termina-
tion of tique or rique is of frequent occurrence in the
names of places, as Chaparristique, Lepaterique, Llotique,
Ajuterique, and others. The race that inhabited this
region were the Lenca Indians, often mentioned in the
accounts given by the missionaries of their early expedi-
tions into Honduras. I think that the Lenca Indians
were the ancient inhabitants of Chontales, that they
were the “Chontals' of the Nahuatls, or Aztecs of the
Pacific side of the country, and that they were partly
conquered, and their territories encroached upon by the
latter before the arrival of the Spaniards, as some of the
Aztec names of places in Nicaragua do not appear to be
Such as could be given originally by the first inhabitants;
thus Juigalpa, pronounced Hueygalpa, is southern Aztec
for “Big Town.” No town could be called the big
town at first by those who saw it grow up gradually from
Small beginnings, but it is a likely enough name to be
given by a conquering invader, Again Ometepec is nearly
pure Aztec for Two Peaks, but the island itself only
contains one, and the name was probably given by an
invader who saw the two peaks of Ometepec and Madera
from the shore of the lake, and thought they belonged
to one island. The Lenca Indians nowhere appear to
have built stone buildings, like the Quiches, and Lacan-
156 TEIE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
dones of Guatemala, and the Mayas of Yucatan, who
were probably much more nearly affiliated to the
Nahuatls of Mexico than the Lencas.
We reached the top of the dividing range, and now
left the main road, talking a path to the left, that is
very rocky and narrow. We began rapidly to descend,
and found an entire change of climate on this side of the
range. It had been raining for weeks at Libertad, and
everywhere the ground was wet and swampy, but two
miles on the other side of the range the ground was quite
dry, and so it continued to Juigalpa. Dry gravelly hills,
covered with low scrubby bushes and trees, succeeded
the damp grassy slopes we had been for hours travelling
over. Prickly acacias, nancitos, guayavas, jicaras, were the
principal trees, with here and there the tree whose thick
coriaceous leaves are used by the natives instead of Sand-
paper. The beds of the rivers were dry, or at the most
contained only stagnant pools of water, until we reached
the Juigalpa river, which rises far to the eastward; the
north-east trade wind in crossing the great forest that
clothes the Atlantic slope of the continent, gives up most
of its moisture; and this range, rising about three thou-
Sand feet above the Sea, intercepts nearly all that re-
mains, so that only occasional showers reach Juigalpa.
On one of the low gravelly hills that we passed, not .
far from the path, we saw a troop of the white-faced
monkey (Cebus albifrons) on the ground, amongst low
scattered trees. Their attitudes, some standing up on
their hind legs to get a better look at us, others with
their backs arched like cats, were amusing. Though
quite ready to run away, they stood all quite still,
watching us, and looked as if they had been grouped for
Ch. IX.] JUIG ALPA. 157
a photograph. A few steps towards them sent them
Scampering off, barking as they went.
Soon after this, I got severely stung by a number of
small wasps, whose nest I had disturbed in passing under
some bushes. About thirty were upon me, but I got off
with about half-a-dozen stings, as I managed to kill the
rest as they made their way through the hair of my head
and beard, for these wasps, having generally to do with
animals covered with hair, do not fly at the open face,
but at the hair of the head, and push down through it
to the skin before they sting. On this and on another
occasion on which I was attacked by them, I had not a
single sting on the exposed portions of my face, although
my hands were stung in killing them in my hair. It is
curious to note that the large black wasp that makes its
nest under the verandahs of houses and eaves of huts,
and has had to deal with man as his principal foe, flies
directly at the face when molested.
Without further adventure we reached Juigalpa at
dusk, and took up our quarters not far from the plaza,
in a house where one large room was set apart for the
accommodation of travellers. We found we should have
to stay for a couple of days before our business was con-
cluded ; and whilst waiting for some law papers to be
made out, I determined to try to see some of the Indian
antiquities in the neighbourhood. We had hard leather
stretchers to sleep on, the use of mattresses being almost
unknown.
Next morning I was up at daylight, and, after getting
a cup of coffee and milk, started off on horseback
on the lower road towards Acoyapo. This led over
undulating Savannahs, with grass and jicara trees, and
158 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
small clumps of low trees and shrubs on stony hillocks.
Wild pigeons were very numerous, and their cooings
were incessant. On the rocky spots grew spiny cactuses,
with flattened pear-shaped joints and Scarlet fruit. I
reached the Juigalpa river about two miles below the
town. Near the crossing it ran between shelving rocky
banks, with here and there still reaches and pebbly shores.
Shady trees overhung the clear water; and behind were
myrtle-leaved shrubs and grassy openings. The morning
was yet young, and the banks were vocal with the
noises of birds, that chattered, whistled, chirruped,
croaked, cooed, warbled, or made discordant cries. I
doubt if any other part of the earth’s surface could show
a greater variety of the feathered tribe. A large brown
bittern stood motionless amongst the stones of a rapid
portion of the stream, crouching down with his neck and
head drawn back close to his body; so that he looked
like a brown rock himself. Kingfishers fitted up and
down, or dashed into the water with a splashing thud.
At a sedgy spot were some jacanas stalking about, and,
when disturbed, rising, chattering their displeasure, and
showing the lemon yellow of the underside of their wings,
contrasting with the deep chocolate brown of the rest of
their plumage. Parrots flew past in screaming flocks, or
alighted on the trees and nestled together in loving
couples, changing their screaming to tender chirrups.
Numerous brown and yellow fly-catchers sat on Small dead
branches, and darted off every now and then after
passing insects. A couple of beautiful mot-mots
(Eumomota superciliaris) made short flights after the
larger insects, or sat on the low branches by the river-
bank, jerking their curious tails from side to side.
Ch. IX.] IBANKS OF THE JUIG ALPA. I 59
Swallows skimmed past in their circling flights, whilst in
the bushes were warbling orange-and-black Sisitotis and
many another bird of beautiful feather. One class of
birds, and that the most characteristic of tropical
America, was decidedly scarce. I did not see a single
humming-bird by the river-side. On the savannahs they
are much less frequent than in the forest region. Insects
were not so numerous as they had been in preceding
years. Over sandy spots two speckled species of tiger-
beetles ran and flew with great swiftness. I saw one
rise from the ground and take an insect on the wing
that was flying slowly over. On one myrtle-like bush,
with Small white flowers, there were dozens of a small
Tongicorn new to me, which, when flying, looked like a
black wasp.
It was very pleasant to sit in the cool shade, and listen
to, and watch, the birds. There was here no fear of
dangerous animals, the only annoyance being stinging
ants or biting sand-flies, neither of which were at this
place very numerous. Snakes also were scarce. I saw
but one, a harmless green one, that glided away, with
wavy folds amongst the brushwood. The natives say
that alligators are plentiful in the river, but that they
are harmless. I saw one Small One, about five feet long,
floating with his eyes, nostrils, and the serratures of his
back only above water. Every one bathes in the river
without fear, which would not be the case if there had
been any one seized by them during the last fifty years;
for no traditions are more persistent than tales of the
attacks of wild beasts; anxious parents pass on from
generation to generation the stories they themselves were
told when children.
160 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
As I sat upon the rocks in the cool shade, enjoying
the scene, there came hobbling along, with painful steps,
on the other side of the river, a poor cripple, afflicted
with that horrible disease, elephantiasis. He crossed
the river with great difficulty, as his feet were swollen to
six times their natural size, with great horny callosities.
One of his hands was also disabled; and altogether he
was a most pitiable object. Such a sight seemed a blot
upon the fair face of nature: but it is our sympathy for
our kind that makes us think so. If the trees were
sympathetic beings, not a poor crippled specimen of
humanity would have their pity, but the gnarled and
half-rotten giants of the forest, threatening to topple
down with every breeze; whilst to our eyes the dying
tree, covered with moss and ferns, and, may be, clasped
by climbing vines, would be a picturesque and pleasing
sight. So the fishes would pity their comrades caught
by the king-fisher, the birds those in the claws of the
hawk—every creature considering the fate that overtook
its fellows, and which might befall itself—the great blot
in nature's plan.
The poor cripple told me he was going into Juigalpa.
He had, doubtless, heard that a stranger had arrived in
the town ; for every time I had been there he had turned
up. His best friends are the foreigners, who look with
greater pity on his misfortune than his neighbours, who
have grown accustomed to it.
The blind, the lame, and the sick are the only beggars
I ever saw in Nicaragua. The necessaries of life are
easily procured. Very little clothing is required. Any
one may plant maize or bananas; and there is plenty of .
work for all who are willing or necessitated to labour;
Ch. IX.] REMARKABLE SINGING-BIRD. 161
so the healthy and strong amongst the poorer classes lead
an easy and pleasant life; but the sick and incapacitated
amongst them are badly eff. There is a great indifference
amongst the natives to the wants of their comrades struck
down by sickness or accident; and hospitals and asylums
are unknown.
I was told that the cripple, lame as he was, often took
long journeys, and had even gone as far as Granada. He
had been a soldier in one of the revolutions, when John
Chamovro was president, and ascribed the commencement
of the disease to getting a chill by bathing when he was
heated.
After he had hobbled off, I had a bathe in the cool
river, and then rambled about on the other side, where I
found some large mango trees, full of delicious ripe fruit.
It was getting on towards noon: the Sun was high and
hot, and the birds had mostly retired into the deepest
shades for their mid-day siesta ; I could have lingered all
day, but it was time for me to return, as I had arranged
with Velasquez to accompany him in search of some
Indian graves he had heard of about three miles away.
As I left the river to return, I heard the whistle of the
beautiful “toledo,” so called because its note resembles
these syllables, clearly and slowly whistled, with the
emphasis on the last two. Following the sound, it led
me to a deep, thickly-timbered gully, at the bottom of
which was the bed of a brook, consisting now only of
detached pools, over one of which, on the limb of a tree,
sat a large dark-coloured hawk, with white-banded tail,
watching for fresh-water and land crabs, on which it
feeds. I had a long chase after the toledo. As soon as
I got within sight of it, sometimes before, it would dart
M
162 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
away through the brushwood, generally across the brook,
and in a few minutes I would hear its deep-toned whistle
again as if in mockery of my pursuit. I had to climb
and reclimb the steep banks of the gully : but at last,
creeping cautiously, and just getting my head above the
bank, I got a shot. There were two of them sitting close
together. I brought both down, and they proved to be
in fine plumage. The toledo (Chirosciphia lineata) is
about the size of a linnet, of a general velvety black
colour. The crown of the head is covered with a flat
scarlet crest, and the back with what looks like a shawl
of sky-blue. From the tail spring two long ribbon-like
feathers. Its curious note is often heard on the
savannahs, in the thick timber that skirts the small
brooks; but it is not often seen, as it is a shy bird, and
frequents the deepest shades. - -
There were several of the yellow-breasted trogon
(T. melanocephalus) sitting amongst the branches, and
now and then darting off after insects. This species
often breaks into the nests of the termites, and feeds on
the soft-bodied workers. Another trogon about here,
with red breast (T. elegans), has a peculiarly harsh,
croaking voice, very different from the other species, and
more resembling the cry of a mot-mot.
As I rode back over the Savannahs to Juigalpa, the
nearly vertical rays of the sun were reflected from the
dry, hot, sandy soil. Not a sound was now heard from
the numerous birds; but the shrill cicada still piped its
never-ending treble. Not a breath of wind was stirring;
and the air over the parched soil quivered with heat.
I was glad to get back to my “hotel,” and have break-
fast, with chocolate served up in jicaras. After an
Ch. IX.] THE EL SALTO WATERFALL. } 63
hour's rest, I started with Velasquez in search of the Indian
antiquities. We rode up the right side of the river, high
up above the stream, as the banks are rocky and pre-
cipitous; then down a shelving road to a lower level,
and across undulating savannahs thinly timbered. After
about three miles, we came out on a small flat plain, pro-
bably alluvial, about twenty acres in extent, mostly covered
with grass, with a few scattered jicaras trees. On the
further end of this plain was a mud-walled, thatched hut,
called “El Salto,” from a fall of the river close by. A
man was lounging about, and a woman bruising maize
for tortillas. The man told us that the “worked stones,”
as he called them, were on the side of the plain we had
crossed. Before going to look at them, we went down to
the river to see the waterfall. Just opposite the house
the Juigalpa river, which comes flowing down over a flat
bed of trachyte, leapt down a deep narrow chasm that it
has cut in the hard rock. This chasm is about fifty feet
deep, and only twenty wide. The river was low, and
poured all its water in at the end of the deep notch; but
when it is flooded, it must rush in over the sides also,
and make a magnificent turmoil of waters. Even when
I saw it, the water, as it rushed along at the bottom of
the narrow chasm, boiling and surging amongst great
masses of fallen rock with a steady roar, looked as if it
would carry all before it. Deep pot holes, some of them
ten feet deep, were worn into the hard trachyte rock, and
sections of sea-coal were shown in the sides of the chasm,
which could only have been formed when the falls were
many yards lower down. The trachyte is very hard and
tough; and the sections of the pot-holes are as fresh as
if they had been made but yesterday.
M 2
164 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
In reply to my assertion that the falls had produced,
and were now working back, the chasm, our guide, the
lounging man from the house, said the rocks had always
been as they were: he had lived there ten years, and
there had been no change in them. Perhaps, if the
buried Indians could rise from their graves where they
were laid to rest more than three hundred years ago,
they, too, would testify that there had been no change,
and that the rocks and the leaping river were as they had
been and would be for ever; for the untrained mind can-
not grasp the idea of the effect of slowly-acting influences
extending over vast periods of time.
We asked the guide if there were any cairns near, and
he said there was one on the top of a neighbouring hill.
Up this we climbed. It was the rounded spur of a range
behind, jutting out into the Small plain before mentioned,
and may be partly artificial. On the summit, which
commanded a fine view of the country around, with the
white cliffs and dark woods of the Amerrique range in
front, was an Indian cairn, elliptical in shape, about
thirty feet long and twenty broad. Several Small trees
had sprung up amongst the stones. Near the centre two
holes had been dug down about four feet deep. Our
guide told us that he and his brother had made them, to
hide themselves in from the soldiers during the last
revolutionary outbreak. Not a very likely story, that
they should have chosen the top of a bare hill for a
hiding-place, when all around in the valleys there were
thickets of brushwood. He said they had found nothing
in the holes; but we soon found fragments of two broken
cinerary urns, one of fine clay, painted with red and
black, the other much coarser and stronger, without
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INDIAN STATUES. Page 165.


















Ch. IX.] SEARCH FOR ANCIENT SCULPTURES. 165
ornament. The custom of the Chontales Indians appears
to have been to burn their dead, and place the ashes in
a thin painted urn, inclosed within a stronger one. This
was buried, along with the stone for grinding maize, and
a cairn of stones built over the grave, in the centre of
which was sometimes set up the statue of the deceased.
It was evident that the tomb had been ransacked in
search of treasure; but our guide was very reticent about
it. He admitted, however, on further questioning, that
he had found a broken “metlate,” or maize-grinder, in
the grave. Velasquez got down into the deepest hole,
and unearthed some more fragments of pottery, but
nothing more.
We then descended the steep face of the hill again,
and crossed the plain to where the “worked stones”
were lying. We found them to be broken fragments of
statues, one larger, better worked, and in much fairer
preservation than the others. They had all been as
much battered and broken as possible; but the greater
size and solidity of this one had made it more difficult to
deface.
It was in two parts, the head being severed from the
body. The total length of the two fragments was about
five feet. The face had been battered and broken. The
nose, was gone, and the mouth defaced; but enough
was left to show that the latter had been protruding.
The eyes were in good preservation, prominent, and with
the eyeballs projecting. Around the head was an orna-
mented circlet, like a crown. The arms were laid over
the breast, and were continued upwards over the shoulder,
and partly down the back, as if it had been intended to
indicate the shoulder-blades. The legs were doubled up,
166 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
*
and continued round to the back, in the same way as the
al’IſlS. º
The back of the figure was elaborately carved, the
most noticeable features being a wide ornamented belt
around the waist, and two well-carved crosses, one on
each shoulder.
The other stones lying about were broken portions of
other Smaller figures and of pedestals. All were made
out of very hard, tough trachyte; and the labour required
to make the principal one out of such difficult material
without tools of iron must have been immense.
The fragments were all lying out on the bare plain. I
thought they must have been brought from Some burial-
place of the ancient Indians. Our guide, on being asked,
said he had seen other cairns of stones besides these on
the hill-top, but could not recollect where. He was very
uneasy when questioned; and at last said he had business
to attend to, and left us abruptly. After he went away,
we examined all around for traces of graves. Between
the plain and the river was a thicket of low trees and
undergrowth. Peering into this, we saw some heaps of
stones; and, pushing in amongst the bushes, we found it
was full of old Indian graves, marked by heaps of stones,
in the centres of some of which still stood the pedestals on
which the statues had been placed. Most of the heaps were
about twenty feet in diameter, and composed of stones of
the average size of a man’s head: but one, from the
centre of which grew an immense cotton-Wood tree, was
made of about a dozen very large stones, some of which
were about five feet long, three broad, and one thick.
Here we got a clue to the explanation of the behaviour of
our guide. When he told us that he knew not where there
Ch. IX.] DEFACEMENT OF ANCIENT STATUES. 167
were any more cairns, he was standing within thirty feet of
one hidden by the thicket, which bore evident marks of hav-
ing been recently disturbed. It was the cairn of big stones.
One of these had been overturned, and some fresh-cut poles,
that had been used as levers, were lying alongside, with the
green bark broken and bruised. A hole had been dug
underneath it, and filled up with stones again. Our loung-
ing friend had been doing a little exploring on his own
account. Many of the natives believe that treasure is
buried under these heaps of stones; and the interest that
foreigners take in them they ascribe to their wish to
obtain these treasures. Our guide, wishing to get these
himself, had taken us to the single grave on the top of
the hill, which he had already ransacked, and professed
ignorance of the others. I only hope that he did not
compound with his conscience for the lies he had told us
by coming back after we left, and trying to break off
another nose of an idol, as the natives call the images.
They think they show their zeal for Christianity by
defacing them. This is why scarcely any of the noses
of the images are left. They were the most salient points
for attack. And that the images have not been utterly
destroyed by the ill-usage they have had for three hun-
dred years is due to the hard, tough rock of which they
are made. It is probable that the statues at El Salto
were brought out from the cairns into the plain, and
publicly thrown down, defaced, and broken, when the
Spaniards first took possession of the Juigalpa district,
and forced Christianity upon the Indians; for the con-
querors everywhere overthrew and mutilated the “idols”
of the Indians, set up the cross and their own images,
and forced the poor people to be baptised. The change
168 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
was not a great one. Already the cross was an emblem
amongst them, and baptism a rite; and the images they
were called upon to adore did not differ so greatly from
those they had worshipped before. They easily conformed
to the new faith. D'Avila is said to have overthrown
the idols at Rivas, and to have baptised nine thousand
Indians. Then the Spaniards, having Christianised the
Indians, made slaves of them, and ground them to the
dust with merciless cruelties and overwork, which quickly
depopulated whole towns and districts.
The presence of the cross in central America greatly
astonished the Spanish discoverers. In Yucatan it was
the emblem of the “god of rain.” There has been
much speculation by various authors respecting its origin,
as a religious emblem, in Mexico and central America; and
it has even been supposed that some of the early
Icelandic Christians of the ninth century may have
reached the coast of Mexico, and introduced some know-
ledge of the Christian religion. But the cross was a
religious emblem of the greatest antiquity, both in Syria
and Egypt, and baptism was a pre-Christian rite; and
these and other observances, such as auricular confession
and monastic institutions, were so mixed up with the
worship of a great number of gods, at the head of which
was the worship of the sun, and were associated with such
horrid human sacrifices and pagan ceremonials, that it
is more likely that they acquired the cross, with other
pagan traditions handed down to them from a remote
antiquity, from the common stock from whence both the
inhabitants of the Eastern and Western hemispheres
were descended. There is good evidence for supposing
that young children were offered up in sacrifice to Thaloc,
Ch. IX.] - GRAVES OF CHIEFS. 169
the god of rain, the very god whose emblem was the
cross—a contrast too great to the “Suffer little children
to come unto me” of the loving Saviour, not to make
the mind revolt against the idea that the cross of the
god of rain had been derived from the cross of the
Christian. -
I see no reason for supposing that the images of El
Salto had been idols, as they were supposed to be by the
early Spaniards, and are still by the degenerate half-
breeds. They are more likely portrait-statues of famous
chieftains who led the tribe to many a victory; and
when they died, a loving people, with wailings and
lamentations, celebrated their funeral obsequies.
The funeral pyre was built, the body burnt, and the
ashes carefully gathered together, and placed in the
finely-wrought urn and painted cinerary, and this
in one larger and coarser. These were buried with the
stone maize-grinder, and sometimes weapons and earthen
dishes and, perhaps, food; and over the grave a pile of
stones was raised, and skilful artificers were set to work
on the hardest and toughest stone they could find to
make a statue of the chief whose memory they reverenced.
It must have taken months, if not years, to have fashioned
the statue I have figured, out of the trachyte, without
tools of iron; and it strikes one with wonder to think
of the patience and perseverance with which the details
were worked out. No time-servers were these Indians;
before and behind they bestowed equal pains and labour
on their work, undeterred by the hardness of the materials
or the rudeness of their tools.
When we turn from these works and remains of a
great and united tribe to the miserable huts of the present
170 , THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
natives, we feel how great a curse the Spanish invasion
has been to Central America. The half-breed, wrapped
up in himself, lives from year to year in his thatched
hut, looking after a few cows, and making cheese from
their milk. He perhaps plants a small patch of maize
once a year, and grows a few plantains, content to live
on the plainest fare, and in the rudest style, so that he
may indulge in indolence and sloth ; and so he vegetates
and drops into his grave; and in a year or two no mark
or sign tells where he was laid. The graves of the old
Indians are still to be found; but no mounds mark the
spots where the inhabitants of the valley since the con-
quest have been laid to rest. They have passed away as
they lived, without a record or memorial.
The builders of these cairns and the fashioners of these
statues were a different and a better race. They stood
by each other, and reverenced and obeyed their chiefs.
They tilled the ground and lived on the fruits of it.
From the accounts of all the historians of the Spanish
conquest, the Pacific side of Nicaragua was so densely
populated when the Spaniards first arrived, that the greater
part of it must have been cultivated like a garden; and
it is probable that the population was ten times greater
than it is now. Another point that strikes the observer
is, that not only the descendants of the Spaniards and
the Mestizos are sunk far below the level of the old
Indians, but that the nearly pure Indians, of whom there
are many large communities, have so degenerated that it
is hard to believe that they are the very same people that,
four hundred years ago, had advanced so far in their
peculiar civilisation. They are not so sunk in sloth as
the half-breeds. They still till the ground, grow maize,
Ch. IX.] I).EGENERATION OF THE INDIANS. 171
cacao, and many fruits; they still make the earthenware
dishes of the country, though far inferior to those of their
ancestors; but they have lost their tribal instinct; they
do not support each other; they acknowledge no chiefs;
each one is absorbed in his own affairs, and they are only
a little less slothful than the half-breeds. Will these
Indians ever again attain to that pitch of civilisation at
which they had arrived before the conquest ? I fear not.
The whip that kept them to the mark in the old days
was the continual warfare between the different tribes,
and this has ceased for ever. War is not always a curse.
“There is some soul of goodness in things evil.” Before
the Spanish conquest no small isolated communities could
exist. Those in which the tribal instinct was stronger,
who stood shoulder to shoulder with their fellows,
reverenced and obeyed their chiefs, and excelled in feats
of strength and agility, would annihilate the weaker and
less warlike races. It was this constant struggle between
the different tribes that weeded out the weak and indo-
lent, and preserved the strong and enterprising ; just as
amongst many of the lower animals the stronger kill
off the weaker, and the result is the improvement of
the race, or at any rate the maintenance of the
point of excellence at which it had arrived in former
times. -
Since the Spanish conquest there has been no such pro-
cess of selection in operation amongst the Indians. The
most indolent can obtain enough food, whilst the climate
makes clothing almost a superfluity. The idle and
improvident live their natural terms of years, and
increase their kind even faster than the provident and
industrious. The tribal feeling is destroyed; the Selfish
172 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
and sensual instincts are developed, and year by year
the Indian degenerates.
Mr. Bates, at the end of his admirable work on the
natural history of the Amazons, speculates on the future
of the human race, and thinks that under the equator
alone will it attain the highest form of perfection. I
have had similar thoughts when riding over hundreds of
miles of fertile savannahs in Central America, where an
everlasting summer and fertile land yield a harvest of
fruits and grain all the year round—where it is not even
necessary “to tickle the ground with a plough to make
it laugh with a harvest.” But thinking over the cause
of the degeneracy of the Spaniards and Indians, I am
led to believe that in climes where man has to battle
with nature for his food, not take it from her hands
as a gift ; where he is a worker, and not a pauper;
where hard winters kill off the weak and brace up the
strong; there only is that selection at work that keeps
the human race advancing, and prevents it retrograding,
now that Mars has been dethroned and Vulcan set on
high.
In destroying the ancient monarchies of Mexico and
Central America, the Spaniards inflicted an irreparable
injury on the Indian race; for whether or not a republic
is the highest ideal form of government (and doubtless it
would be if man were perfect), it is not adapted for
savage or half-civilised communities, and I cordially
agree with Darwin when, writing of the natives of Terra
del Fuego, he says, “Perfect equality among the indi-
viduals composing the Fuegian tribes must for a long
time retard their civilisation. As we see those animals
whose instinct compels them to live in society, and obey
Ch. IX.] NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. 173
a chief, are most capable of improvement, so is it with
the races of mankind. Whether we look at it as a
cause or a consequence, the more civilised always have
the most artificial governments. For instance, the
inhabitants of Otaheite, who, when first discovered, were
governed by hereditary kings, had arrived at a far higher
grade than another branch of the same people, the New
Zealanders, who, although benefited by being compelled
to turn their attention to agriculture, were republicans in
the most absolute sense.”*
Dusk was coming on before we left the small plain,
with its broken statues, and the steep hill overlooking it,
on which probably religious rites had been celebrated
and human sacrifices offered up. This people have
entirely passed away, and the sparse inhabitants of the
Once thickly-populated province have not even a tradi-
tion about them. In Europe and North America more
is known about them, and more interest taken in glean-
ing what little vestiges of their history can be recovered
from the dim past, than among their own degenerate
descendants.
Half way to Juigalpa was an Indian hut and a small
clearing made for growing maize. The fallen trunks of
trees were a likely place for beetles, and as I had brought
a lantern with me, I stayed to examine them whilst
Velasquez rode on to get some food ready. At night
many species of beetles, especially longicorns, are to be
found running over the trunks, that lie closely hidden in
the day-time. The night-world is very different from that
of the day. Things that blink and hide from the light
* “Naturalist's Voyage,” p. 229.
174 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX.
are all awake and astir when the sun goes down. Great
spiders and scorpions prowl about, or take up advan-
tageous positions where they expect their prey to pass.
Cockroaches of all sizes, from that of one’s finger to that
of one’s finger-nail, stand with long quivering antennae,
pictures of alert outlook, watching for their numerous
foes, or Scurry away as fast as their long legs can
carry them; but if they come within reach of the great
spider they are pounced upon in an instant, and with
one convulsive kick give up the hopeless struggle.
Centipedes, wood-lice, and all kinds of creeping things
come out of cracks and crevices; even the pools are
alive with water-beetles that have been hiding in the
ooze all day, excepting when they came up with a dash
to the surface for a bubble of fresh air. Owls and night-
jars make strange unearthly cries. The timid deer
comes out of its close covert to feed on the grassy
clearings. Jaguars, Ocelots, and opossums slink about in
the gloom. The skunk goes leisurely along, holding up
his white tail as a danger-flag for none to come within
range of his nauseous artillery. Bats and large moths
fitter around, whilst all the day-world is at rest and
asleep. The night speeds on ; the stars that rose in the
east are sinking behind the western hills; a faint tinge
of dawn lights the eastern sky; loud and shrill rings out
the awakening shout of chanticleer; the grey dawn
comes on apace; a hundred birds salute the cheerful
morn, and the night-world hurries to its gloomy dens and
hiding-places, like the 'sprites and fairy elves of our
nursery days. It was very dark when I started to
return, excepting that flashes of lightning now and then
illumined the path ; but I left my mule to herself, and
Ch. IX.] RETURN TO JUIG ALPA. 175
she carried me safely into Juigalpa, where I found dinner
awaiting me. It took me until midnight to skin the
birds I had shot during the day; and as I had been up
since six in the morning, I was quite ready for, and took
kindly to, my hard leathern couch.
CHAPTER X.
Juigalpa–A Nicaraguan family–Description of the road from Jui-
galpa to Santo Domingo—Comparative scarcity of insects in
Nicaragua in 1872—Water-bearing plants—Insect traps—The
South-western edge of the forest region—Influence of cultiva-
tion upon it—Sagacity of the mule.
THE site of Juigalpa is beautifully chosen, as is usual
with the old Indian towns. It is on a level dry piece of
land, about three hundred feet above the river. A
rocky brook behind the town supplies the water for
drinking and cooking purposes. The large square or
plaza has the church at one end; on the other three
sides are red-tiled adobe houses and stores, with floors of
clay or red bricks. Streets branch off at right angles
from the square, and are crossed by others. The best
houses are those nearest the Square; those on the out-
skirts are mere thatched hovels, with open sides of
bamboo poles. The house I stayed at was at the corner
of one of the square blocks, and from the angle the view
extended in four directions along the level roads. Each
way the prospect was bounded by hills in the distance.
North-east were the white cliffs of the Amerrique range,
mantled with dark woods; and as the intervening
country could not be seen, and only a small portion of
the range itself, framed in, as it were, by the sides of the
street, it looked close at hand, and like a piece of arti-
Ch. X.] INDOLENCE OF THE PEOPLE. 177
ficial rockery, or the grey walls of a castle covered with
ivy. The range to the south-west is several miles dis-
tant, and is called San Miguelito by the Spaniards, but
I could not learn its Indian name.
Our host was a musician, whose wife attended to the
guests. As usual, a number of relations lived with them,
including the mother of our hostess and two of her
brothers. It was a very fair sample of a family amongst
what may be called the middle class in Nicaragua. The
master of the house plays occasionally in a band at
dances and festas, and holds a respectable position at
Juigalpa, where the highest families keep stores and
shops.
The only work is done by the females—the men keep
up their dignity by lounging about all day, or lolling in a
hammock, all wearied with their slothfulness, and looking
discontented and unhappy. One brother told me he was
a carpenter, the other a shoemaker; but that there was
nothing to do in Juigalpa. I suggested that they should
go to Libertad, where there was plenty of work; but
they said there was too much rain there. As long as
their brother-in-law will allow them, they will remain
lounging about his house; and that will probably be as
long as he has one, for I noticed that the Nicaraguans
are rather proud to have a lot of relations hanging about
and dependent on them. Now and then they do little
spells of work—get in the cows or doctor one that is
sick—but I doubt if any of them average more than
half an hour's work per day; but even this may be an
equivalent for their board, which does not cost much,
being only a few tortillas and beans.
To this have the descendants of the Spanish con-
N
178 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
querors come, throughout the length and breadth of the
land. With perennial summer and a fertile soil they
might drink the waters of abundance; but the silken
bands of indolence have wound round them generation
after generation, and now they are so bound up in the
drowsy folds of slothfulness that they cannot break their
silken fetters. Not a green vegetable, not a fruit, can
you buy at Juigalpa. Beef, or a fowl—brown beans,
rice, and tortillas—form the only fare. When Mexico
becomes one of the United States, all Central America
will soon follow. Railways will be pushed from the
north into the tropics, and a constant stream of immigra-
tion will change the face of the country, and fill it with
farms and gardens, orange groves, and coffee, sugar, cacao,
and indigo plantations; but no progress need be expected
from the present inhabitants.
Having finished our business in Juigalpa, we arranged
to start on our return early the next morning, Velas-
quez going round by Acoyapo whilst Rito accom-
panied me to the mines. I had a fowl cooked overnight
to take with us, and set off at six o'clock. I shall make
some remarks on the road on points mot touched on in
my account of the journey out. After leaving Juigalpa,
we descended to the river by a rocky and steep path,
crossed it, and then passed over alluvial-like plains,
intersected by a few nearly dry river beds to the foot
of the south-western side of the Amerrique hills, then
gradually ascended the range that separates the Juigalpa
district from that of Libertad. The ground was gravelly
and dry, with stony hillocks covered with low trees and
bushes. After ascending about a thousand feet, the
ground became much moister, and we reached an Indian
Ch. X.] - BAMBOO THICKETS. 179
hut on the side of the range, where a few bananas and a
little maize was grown. Indian women, naked to the
Waist, were, as usual, bruising maize, this being their
employment from morning to night; whilst the men were
sitting about idle. Some mangy-looking dogs set up a
loud barking as we approached. To one of them clung
a young spider-monkey. A number of parrots also gave
evidence of the great fondness the Indians have for
animal pets. There is scarcely a house where some bird
or beast is not kept ; and the Indian women are very
clever in taming birds, probably by their constant kind-
ness and gentleness to them, and by feeding them out of
their mouths and fondling them. From near here we
had a fine view, and saw that we had come up the side
of a wide valley, bounded on the left by the Amerrique
range, on the right by high rounded grassy hills, on one
of which we could make out the cattle hacienda of
La Puerta. Times of trees and bamboo thickets marked
the course of numerous brooks that joined lower down
and formed the small rivers we had crossed. Ilooking
down the valley it opened out into a wide plain, with
here and there sharp-topped conical hills, such as abound
in Central America, where they appear to have been
taken as landmarks by the Indians, as many of the old
roads lead past them. Beyond the plain in the grey
distance were the waters of the lake and the peaks of
Ometepec and Madera.
We had now to ascend the side of a ravine, the road,
or rather path, being through a bamboo thicket for about
a mile, and the bamboos touching our knees on either
side, arching close overhead, so that we had to lie on
the mules' necks a great part of the way. Some portiors
- N 2
180 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
of the road are dangerously steep and rocky; but as fully
a league in distance is saved by taking this by-path,
instead of the main road by way of La Puerta, I gene-
rally preferred travelling by it, especially as I often took
rare and new beetles on the bushes. I usually, when
travelling, carried a net fixed to a short stick, and caught
the insects as I passed along, off the leaves, without
stopping; so abundant were they, that it was very
rare for me to take the shortest journey without finding
some new species to add to my collection. On this
journey I did not, however, take many insects, as the
latter half of the year 1872, for some reason or other,
was a very unfavourable season for them. The scarcity
of beetles was very remarkable. The wet season set in
a little earlier than usual, but I do not think that this
caused the dearth of insects, as at Juigalpa, where there
had been scarcely any rain, there were very few com-
pared with the two former years. The year before,
when the season was nearly as wet, beetles, especially
longicorns, had been very abundant; and the first half
of 1872 had not been characterised by any scarcity of
them. Some of the fine longicorns that appear in April
were numerous. No less than five specimens of a large
and beautiful one (Dellathis nivea, Bates), white, with
black spots, that we considered one of our greatest
rarities, were taken in that month. It was not until the
end of May that the great scarcity of beetles, compared
with their abundance in former years, became apparent.
I think all classes of beetles had suffered. Many fine
lamellicorns, that were generally numerous, were not seen
at all; neither were many species of longicorns, usually
common. A fig-tree that I had growing in my garden
Ch. X.] ANIMAL EPIDEMICS. 181
had been much injured by a longicorn (Taeniotes scalaris)
in 1870 and 1871, but was not touched in 1872.
Butterflies were also scarce, but it was the second
season that they had been so. Some ants were affected;
in others, such as the leaf-cutter, I noted no percep-
tible diminution in number. A little ant (Pheidole sp.)
that used to swarm on a passion flower which grew over
the house, attending on the honey glands, and scale
insects, disappeared altogether; and another species
(Hypoclinea sp.) that it used to drive away, took its
place. A small stinging black ant (Solenopsis sp.), that
was a great plague in the houses, was also fortunately
scarce. In the beginning of June nearly all the white
ants or termites (“Comiens” of the Nicaraguans) died.
In some parts of my house they lay in little heaps, just
as they dropped from the nests above in the roof, and
most of the nests were entirely depopulated. I
examined some of the dead termites with a magnifier,
but could detect no difference in them, excepting that
they seemed a little swollen.
That some epidemic prevailed amongst the insects
there can be no doubt; and it is curious that it should
have attacked so many different species and classes. I
am not sure that it was confined to the insects, for
there was also a great mortality amongst the fowls, a
great number dying from inflammation of the crop, and
two large parrots fell victims to the same disease. This
disease amongst the birds may not, however, have been
connected in any way with that amongst the insects. I
recollect that in 1865 there was a somewhat similar
mortality amongst the wasps in North Wales. In the
autumn of the preceding year they had been exceed-
182 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
ingly abundant, and very destructive to the fruit. In
the next spring, numerous females that had hybernated
commenced making their paper nests, and I anticipated
a still greater plague of wasps in the autumn than we
had had the year before; but some epidemic carried off
nearly all the females before they finished building their
nests, and in the autumn scarcely a wasp was to be seen ;
I saw also in the Natural History magazines notices of
their scarcity in all parts of England.
The great mortality amongst the insects of Chontales
in 1872 has some bearing on the origin of species, for in
times of such great epidemics we may suspect that the
gradations that connect extreme forms of the same
species may become extinct. Darwin has shown how
very slight differences in the colour of the skin and hair
are sometimes correlated with great immunity from
certain diseases, and from the action of some vegetable
poisons, and the attacks of certain parasites.* Any
varieties of species of insects that could withstand better
than others these great and probably periodical epi-
demics, would certainly obtain a great advantage over
those not so protected ; and thus the survival of one
form, and the extinction of another, might be brought
about. We see two species of the same genus, as in
many insects, differing but little from each other, yet
quite distinct, and we ask, why if these have descended
from one parent form, do not the innumerable grada-
tions that must have connected them exist also P. There
is but one answer; we are ignorant what characters are
* “Descent of Man,” vol. i. p. 242 ; and “Animals and Plants
under Cultivation,” vol. ii. pp. 227—230. I have taken the examples
given from the same author. -
Ch. X.] WATER RESERVOIRS OF PLANTS, 183
of essential value to each species; we do not know why
white terriers are more subject than darker coloured
ones to the attacks of the fatal distemper; why yellow-
fleshed peaches in America suffer more from diseases
than the white-fleshed varieties; why white chickens
are most liable to the gapes ; or why the caterpillars
of silkworms, which produce white cocoons, are not
attacked by fungus, so much as those that produce
yellow cocoons P. Yet in all these cases, and many
others, it has been shown that immunity from disease is
correlated with some slight difference in colour or
structure, but as to the cause of that immunity we are
entirely ignorant.
At last we reached the summit of the range, which is
probably not less than three thousand feet above the
Sea, and entered on the district of Libertad. Rounded
boggy hills covered with grass, Sedgy plants and stunted
trees, replaced the dry gravelly soil of the Juigalpa
district. The low trees bore innumerable epiphytal plants
on their trunks and boughs. Many of these are species
of Tillandsia, which sit perched up on the small branches
like birds. They have sheathy leaves that hold at
their base a supply of water that must be very useful to
them in the dry season. Insects get drowned in this
water, and the plants may derive some nourishment
from their decomposing bodies, but I believe the prin-
cipal object is to obtain a supply of moisture, as the
roots of the plants do not hang down to the ground,
like those of many other epiphytes in the tropics, nor
are they provided with bulbs like the orchids. Some
plants that hold liquids in cup-shaped leaves are simply
intº traps, many of them growing in bogs, where the
184 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
supply of moisture is perennial and constant. Such is
the Indian-cup (Sarracenia) that grows in the bogs of
Canada, and the Californian pitcher-plant (Darlingtonia
californica), which also grows in bogs, and is such an
excellent fly-trap, that there is generally a layer of from
two to five inches of decomposing insects lying at the
bottom of the cup.” The different species of Drosera,
or sun-dews, possess quite a different apparatus for
catching insects, and they also live in bogs, which
Supports the inference that plants growing in such situa-
tions have some especial need to obtain nutriment,
which they cannot draw from the decaying vegetation on
which they live. Possibly they obtain the salts of
potash in this way. I did not notice any provision in
the leaves of the Bromeliaceous epiphytes of Chontales
to ensure the capture of insects, but often saw their dead
bodies in the water held at the base of the leaves, and
any that came to drink would be very liable to slip into
the water from off the nearly perpendicular side of the
leaf and be drowned. It is not impossible that the small
supply of mineral salts required for the organisation of
these plants that do not draw any nutriment from the
earth may be obtained from dead insects, but, as I have
already stated, I believe that the principal object is to
lay up a store of water to carry them safely through the
dry season ; and, incidentally, the further advantage has
been gained that insects fall into the receptacles of
water and are drowned, affording in their decomposition
nourishment to the plants. -
Our road now lay over the damp grassy hills of the
Libertad district. It edged away from the Amerrique
* See “Nature,” vol. iii. pp. 159 and 167.
ax.
f
Ch. X.] SHARP DELIMITATION OF FOREST. 185
range on our right. To our left, about three miles
distant, rose the dark sinuous line of the great forest of
the Atlantic slope. Only a fringe of dark-foliaged trees
in the foreground was visible, the higher ground behind
was shrouded in a sombre pall of thick clouds that never
lifted, but seemed to cover a gloomy and mysterious
country beyond; and though I had dived into the re-
cesses of these mountains again and again, and knew that
they were covered with beautiful vegetation and full of
animal life, yet the sight of that leaden-coloured barrier
of cloud resting on the forest tops, whilst the savannahs
were bathed in sunshine, ever raised in my mind vague
sensations of the unknown and the unfathomable. Our
course was nearly parallel to this gloomy forest, but we
gradually approached it. The line that separates it
from the grassy Savannahs is sinuous and irregular. In
Some places a dark promontory of trees juts out into
the Savannahs, in others a green grassy hill is seen
almost surrounded by forest. When I first came to the
country, I was much puzzled to understand why the
forest should end just where it did. It is not caused by
any change in the nature of the soil or bed-rock. It
cannot be for lack of moisture, for around Libertad it
rains for at least six months out of the twelve. The
surface of the ground is not level on the Savannahs, but
consists of hill and dale, just as in the forest. Altogether
the conditions seemed to be exactly the same, and it
appeared a difficult matter to account for the fact that
the forest should end at an irregular but definite line,
and that at that boundary grassy savannahs should
commence. After seeing the changes that were wrought
during the four and a half years that I was in the
186 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
country, I have been led to the conclusion that the
forest formerly extended much further towards the
Pacific, and has been beaten back principally by the
agency of man. The ancient Indians of Nicaragua were
an agricultural race, their principal food then, as now,
being maize; and in all the ancient graves, the stone
for grinding corn is found placed there, as the one thing
that was considered indispensable. They cut down
patches of the forest and burnt it to plant their corn,
as all along the edge of it they do still. The first time
the forest is cut down, and the ground planted with corn,
the soil contains seeds of the forest trees, which after the
corn is gathered, spring up and regain possession of
the ground, so that in twenty years, if such a spot is let
alone, it will scarcely differ from the surrounding un-
touched forest. But it does not remain unmolested.
After two or three years it is cut down again and
a great change takes place. The soil does not now
contain seeds of forest trees, and in their stead a great
variety of weedy-looking shrubs, only found where
the land has been cultivated, spring up. Grass, too,
begins to get a hold on the ground; if it prevails, the
Indian, or Mestizo, does not attempt to grow corn there
again, as he knows the grass will spoil it, and he is too
indolent to weed it out. Often, however, the brush-
wood has been cut down and burnt, and fresh crops
of corn grown several times before the grass has gained
such an advantage that the cultivator gives up the
attempt to plant maize. There is then a struggle
between the weedy shrubs and the grass. The leaf-
cutting ants come to the aid of the latter. Grass they
will not touch, excepting to clear it away from their
Ch. X.] RETROCESSION OF THE FOREST. 187°
paths. The thick forest they do not like, possibly
because beneath its shade the ground is kept too damp
for their fungus beds. But along the edge of the forest,
by the sides of roads through it, that let in the air
and Sunshine, and in clearings they abound, and are
especially fond of the leaves of young trees, many of
which are destroyed by them. Should the brushwood
ultimately prevail, and cover the ground, the Indian,
or Mestizo, comes again after a few years, cuts it down,
and replants it with maize. But as most of his old
clearings get covered with grass, he is continually en-
croaching on the edge of the forest, beating it back
gradually, but surely, towards the north-east. As this
process has probably been going on for many thou-
Sands of years, I believe that the edge of the forest is
Several miles nearer the Atlantic than it was originally.
In this way many acres in the neighbourhood of
Pital were taken from the forest, and added to the
grass-lands, whilst I was in the country. The brush-
wood-land does not yield such good crops as the virgin-
forest, but it is nearer to the huts of the cultivators, who
live out on the savannahs, so that whenever the weedy
shrubs gain possession of a spot sufficiently large for a
clearing, and choke off the grass, these places are again
cut down and burnt, and thus the forest is never
allowed to establish outposts, or advanced stations, in
the disputed ground. What would be the result if man
were withdrawn from the scene, I do not know, but I
believe that the forest would slowly, but surely, regain
the ground that it has lost through long centuries. The
thickets and dense brushwood that always spring up
along the edge of the forest, and consist of many
188 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
shrubs that the leaf-cutting ants do not touch, would
gradually spread, and beat back the grass. In their
shade and shelter, seeds from the forest would vege-
tate and grow, and thus, I think, very slowly, inch by
inch, the forest would regain its long-lost territory, and
gradually extend its limits towards the south-west,
until it reached its old boundaries, where a change in
the physical character of the land, or in the amount of
moisture precipitated, would stay its further progress.
It is far more likely, however, that man will drive back
the forest to the very Atlantic than that he will quit the
SCCIlê.
After passing the Indian graves, about a league from
Libertad, we turned off to the right, by a path that led
directly to the Mico, without going through the town.
After crossing several rounded grassy hills, we reached
the river, and found it swollen with recent rains, but
fordable. Sometimes travellers are detained several days,
unable to cross, and I was always glad when, return-
ing to the mines, I had put it behind me. Now and
then a traveller is drowned when attempting to cross the
swollen river, but these accidents are rare, as it is well
known, by certain rocks being covered, when it is unford-
able. If carried away, a traveller has little chance to save
his life, as just below the crossing the river is rapid and
the banks narrow. I heard of one man who had had
a very narrow escape. He was trying to cross on mule-
back, but his beast lost its footing, rolled over, and was
rapidly washed away. The poor man was carried into
the roaring rapids, and would soon have been drowned,
but a herdsman on the bank, who was looking for cattle,
threw his lasso cleverly over the drowning traveller, and
Ch. X.] REASONING OF MTUTES. 189
dragged him on shore. Some of the “vacqueros,” as
the herdsmen are called, are wonderfully adroit in
throwing the lasso, when riding at full speed; they
throw it over the horns of the cattle, and the heads of
the horses, and can hold the strongest if sideways on,
but I have seen some old bulls that knew how to get
loose. They would run straight away from the vacquero
in places where he could not ride round them, and get-
ting a straight pull on the lasso, would break it, or draw
it out of his hands. There are no horses or mules, and
very few cattle, however, that know how to do this.
After crossing the river, we soon reached Pital, where
I had a cup of tea and got a fresh mule. We now
turned nearly at right angles to our former course, and
struck into the dark forest, the road through which I
have already described. It was very wet and muddy.
In some places, although it was only the commencement
of the wet season, the mules sank above their knees.
On this occasion, as on many others, I had often to
notice how well the mule remembered places where in
some former year it had avoided a particularly bad
place by making a detour. I was riding a mule that
had tender feet, having just recovered from the bite of a
spider, that had occasioned the loss of one of its hoofs,
and when it came near to a place where it could escape
the deep mud by going over a stony part it would slacken
its pace and look first at the mud, then at the stones,
evidently balancing in its mind which was the least evil.
Sometimes, too, when it came to a very bad place, which
was better at the sides, I left it to itself, and it would be
so undecided which side was the best, that making
towards one it would look towards the other, and end by
190 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. X.
getting into the worst of the mud. It was just like
many men who cannot decide which of two courses to
take, and end by a middle one, which is worse than
either. And just as in men, so in mules, there is every
variety of disposition and ability. Some are easily led,
others most obstinate and headstrong; some wise and
prudent, others foolish and rash. The memory of locali-
ties is much stronger in horses and mules than in man.
When travelling along a road that they have been over
only once, and that some years before, where there are
numerous branch roads and turnings, they will never
make a mistake, even in the dark; and I have often, at
might, when I could not make out the road myself, left
them to their own guidance, and they have taken me
safely to my destination. Only once was I misled, and
that through the too good memory of my mule. Many
years before it had been taken to a pasture of good grass,
and recollecting this, it took me several miles out of my
road towards its old feeding-ground, causing me to be
benighted in consequence.
I reached the mines at nine o’clock, and found that
during my absence it had been raining almost con-
tinuously, although at Juigalpa there had been only a
few slight showers.
CHAPTER XI.
Start on journey to Segovia—Rocky Mountain road—A poor lodging
—The rock of Cuapo–The use of large beaks in some birds—
Comoapa–A native doctor—Vultures—Flight of birds that
Soar—Natives live from generation to generation on the same
Spot---Do not give distinctive names to the rivers—Caribs barter
guns and irºn pots for dogs—The hairless dogs of tropical
America—Difference between artificial and natural selection—
The cause of sterility between allied species considered—The
disadvantages of a covering of hair in a domesticated animal
in a tropical country.
IN July of the same year, 1872, I made the longest
journey of any I undertook in Nicaragua. It had been
for some time difficult to obtain sufficient native labourers
for our mines, and as we contemplated extending our
operations, it was very important that it should be
ascertained whether or not we could depend upon obtain-
ing the additional workmen that would be required.
Nearly all our native miners came from the high lands
of the province of Segovia, near to the boundary of
Honduras. The inhabitants of the lower country are
mostly vacqueros, used to riding on horseback after
cattle, and not to be tempted, even by the much higher
wages they can obtain, to engage in the toilsome labour
of underground mining. The inhabitants of Segovia, on
the contrary, have been miners from time immemorial,
and it is work they readily take to. I had often desired
192 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
to see for myself what supply of labour could be obtained,
but the journey was a long and toilsome one, and it was
not until the labour question became urgent that I
resolved to undertake it.
Having determined on the journey, I soon completed
my preparations. I took my Mestizo boy, Rito, with
me; Velasquez was to join me on the road; a pack mule
carried our equipment, consisting of some bread, rugs, a
large waterproof sheet, a change of clothes, and a ham-
mock. We started at seven o’clock on the morning of
the 11th July, and, as usual, made very slow progress
through the forest as far as Pital, in consequence of the
badness of the road, which was now worse than when I
had passed over it a month before. After reaching the
savannahs, we proceeded more rapidly. We followed
the Juigalpa road until we got two leagues beyond
Libertad, when we turned more to the north, taking a
path that led over mountain ranges. This road was
very rocky and steep ; we were continually ascending or
descending, and as it rained all the afternoon, the footing
for our beasts was very bad. I was riding on a horse,
and he not being so Sure-footed or so cautious as a mule,
often stumbled on the steep and slippery slopes. In some
places the path led along the top of the narrow ridge of a
long hog-backed hill, in others by a series of zigzags, we
surmounted or came down the precipitous slopes. I
nearly came to grief at one place. We had climbed up
one of these steep hills, and at the top a rocky shelf or
cap had to be leaped, at right angles to the narrow path
that slanted up the face of the hill. I put my horse to
it, but he slipped on the smooth rock and fell. If he had
gone back over the narrow path, he must have rolled
Ch. XI.] DIFFICULT TRAVELLING. 198
down the abrupt slope; but he made another spring, fell
again, but this time with his forefeet over the rock, and
on the third attempt he scrambled over and landed me
º: % º * A lºſſ % % * : * % %
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{
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º º % %
».3% %
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THE ROAD AND ROCKY LEDGE.
Sº,
safely on the top, but, I confess, much shaken in my
seat. My straw-hat came off in the struggle, and was
rolling merrily down the hill, when it was caught in a
low bush, much to Rito's satisfaction, who was antici-
pating a long tramp after it. We had a fine view from
the top of this range over a deep valley, bounded with
precipitous cliffs and dark patches of forest. Over our
heads floated drifting rain-clouds from the north-east
that sometimes concealed the mountain tops, sometimes
lifted and showed their craggy Summits.
Our beasts were tired out with the rough travelling,
and we moved along slowly. About five o’clock we came
in sight of the rock of Cuapo, an isolated perpendicular
cliff rising about 300 feet above the top of a hill that
it crowns. After descending a long, steep range, we
reached, near dusk, a small hut, called Tablasón, and
here we determined to pass the night, although the
accommodation was about the scantiest possible. A man
and his wife, six children, and a woman to grind the
O












194 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
maize for tortillas, lived in the hut. The greatest portion
of it was quite open at the sides, without even a fence to
keep out the pigs. At one end a place about ten feet
square was partitioned off from the rest, and surrounded
with mud-walls, and in this the whole family slept.
Both the people and the house were very dirty. The
remains of a broken chair was the only furniture, except-
ing the rough bedsteads made by sticking four sticks into
the ground, on which are laid two long poles, kept apart
by two shorter ones at the end, over which rude frame a
dry hide is stretched. I was offered one of these couches
for the night, and accepted it; though if it had not been
for the rain I would rather have slept outside, but all
around was sloppy and wet ; night had set in ; our mules
and horse were tired; we ourselves were fatigued, and
there was no other shelter within several miles. They
had no food to sell us, and appeared to have nothing for
themselves, excepting a few tortillas and a little home-
made cheese. We opened out some of our preseryed
meats. Whilst I was eating, the whole family .
around me, apparently never having seen anyone eat
with a fork before. Fortunately we had brought candles
with us, or we should have been in darkness, for they
had none; nor did they ever appear to use them, as they
had no candlesticks, and the children and our host him-
Self took it by turns to hold our lights. All wore ragged,
dirty cotton clothes, that only half-covered them. They
had four cows, and pigs, dogs, and poultry. The land
around was fertile; they might take as much of it as
they liked to cultivate, and, with a little trouble, might
have grown almost anything; but the blight of Central
America—the curse of idleness, was upon them, and they
Ch. XI.] TAME FAWN. 195
were content to live on in squalid poverty rather than
Work.
We were so tired, that notwithstanding our miserable
and crowded quarters, we slept soundly, but were up at
daylight, and soon ready for our journey again, after
Rito had made a little coffee, and I had compensated
Our host for our lodging. The scenery around was very
fine, and the place might have been made an earthly
paradise. To the north-east a spur of the forest came
down to within a mile of the house; in front were grassy
hills and clumps of brushwood and trees, with a clear
gurgling stream in the bottom; and beyond, in the
distance, forest-clad mountains. As usual, the family
had a pet animal. Before we left, a pretty fawn came
in from the forest to be fed, and eyed us suspiciously,
laying its head back over its shoulders, and gazing at us
with its large, dreamy-looking eyes. The woman told
us it had a wild mate in the woods, but came in daily to
visit them, the dogs recognising and not molesting it.
Our road still lay within a few miles of the dark
Atlantic forest, the clouds lying all along the first range,
concealing more than they exposed. There was a sort
of gloomy grandeur about the view ; so much was hidden,
that the mind was left at liberty to imagine that behind
these clouds lay towering mountains and awful cliffs.
The road passed within a short distance of the rock of
Cuapo, and, leaving my horse with Rito, I climbed up
towards it. A ridge on the eastern side runs up to
within about 200 feet of the summit, and so far it is
accessible. Up this I climbed to the base of the brown
rock, the perpendicular cliff towering up above me; here
and there were patches of grey, where lichens clung to
O 2
I96 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
the rock, and orchids, ferns, and small shrubs grew in
the clefts and on ledges. There were two fine orchids in
flower, which grew not only on the rock, but on some
stunted trees at its base; and beneath some fallen rocks
grew a pretty club-moss, and two curious little ferns
(Aneimea oblongifolia and hirsuta), with the masses of
spores on stalks rising from the pinnules. The rock was
the same as that of Peña Blanca, but the vegetation
was entirely distinct. To the south-west there was a
fine view down the Juigalpa valley to the lake, with
Ometepec in the distance, and some Sugar-loaf hills
nearer at hand. The weather had cleared up, white
cumuli only sailed across the blue aerial ocean. The
scene had no feature in it of a purely tropical character,
excepting that three gaudy macaws were wheeling round
and round in playful flight, now showing all red on the
under surface, then turning all together, as if they were
one body, and showing the gorgeous blue, yellow, and red
of the upper side gleaming in the Sunshine; screaming
meanwhile as they flew with harsh, discordant cries. This
gaudy-coloured and noisy bird seems to proclaim aloud
that it fears no foe. Its formidable beak protects it from
every danger, for no havk or predatory mammal dares.
attack a bird so strongly armed. Here the necessity for
concealment does not exist, and sexual selection has had
no check in developing the brightest and most conspicuous
colours. If such a bird was not able to defend itself from
all foes, its loud cries would attract them; its bright colours
direct them to its own destruction. The white cockatoo
of Australia is a similar instance. It is equally conspi-
cuous amongst the dark-green foliage by its pure white
colour, and equally its loud Screams proclaim from afar
Ch. XI.] USE OF TOUCAN’S BEAK. 197
its resting-place, whilst its powerful beak protects it from
all enemies excepting man. In the smaller species of
parrots the beak is not sufficiently strong to protect them
from their enemies, and most of them are coloured green,
which makes them very difficult to distinguish amongst
the leaves. I have been looking for several minutes
at a tree, in which were scores of small green parrots,
making an incessant noise, without being able to dis-
tinguish one; and I recollect once in Australia firing at
what I thought was a solitary “green leek” parrot
amongst a bunch of leaves, and to my astonishment five
“green leeks” fell to the ground, the whole bunch of
apparent leaves having been composed of them. The
bills of even the smallest parrots must, however, be very
useful to them to guard the entrances to their nests in
the holes of trees, in which they breed.
I believe that the principal use of the long sharp bill
of the Toucan is also that of a weapon with which to
defend itself against all its enemies, especially when
nesting in the hole of a tree. Any predatory animal
must face this formidable beak if seeking to force an
entrance to the nest; and I know by experience that the
toucan can use it with great quickness and effect. I
kept a young one of the largest Nicaraguan species
(Ramphastus tocard) for some time, until it one day came
within reach of and was killed by my monkey. It was
a most comical-looking bird when hopping about, and
though evidently partial to fruit, was eager after cock-
roaches and other insects; its long bill being useful in
picking them out of crevices and corners. It used its
bill so dexterously that it was impossible to put one's
hand near it without being struck, and the blow would
198 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
always draw blood. That in the tropics birds should
have some special development for the protection of their
breeding-places is not to be wondered at when we reflect
upon the great number of predatory mammals, monkeys,
racoons, opossums, &c., that are constantly searching
about for nests and devouring the eggs and young ones.
I have already mentioned the great danger they run
from the attacks of the immense armies of foraging ants,
and the importance of having some means of picking off
the pioneers, that they may not return and scent the
trail for the advance of the main body, whose numbers
would overcome all resistance.
After examining round the rock without finding any
place by which it could be ascended, I rejoined Rito in
the valley below, and we continued our journey. We
passed over some ranges and wide valleys, where there
was much grass and a few scattered huts, but very little
cattle ; the country being thinly populated. On the top
of a rocky range we stayed at a small house for break-
fast, and they made us ready some tortillas. As usual,
there seemed to be three or four families all living
together, and there were a great number of children.
The men were two miles away at a clearing on the edge
of the forest, looking after their “milpas,” or maize
patches. The house, though Small, was cleaner and
tidier than the others we had seen, and in furniture
could boast of a table and a few chairs, which showed
we had chanced to fall on the habitation of one of
the well-to-do class. The ceiling of the room we were
in was made of bamboo-rods, above which maize was
stored. The women were good-looking, and appeared to
be of nearly pure Spanish descent; which perhaps
Ch. XI.] A WILLAGE DOCTOR. 199
accounted for the chairs and table, and also for the
absence of any attempt at gardening around the house—
for the Indian eschews furniture, but is nearly always a
gardener. •.
We finished our homely breakfast and set off again,
crossing some more rocky ranges, and passing several
Indian huts with orange trees growing around them,
and at two o'clock in the afternoon reached the small
town of Comoapa, where I determined to wait for Velas-
quez. Looking about for a house to stay at, we found
one kept by a woman who formerly lived at Santo
Domingo, and who was very glad to receive us; though
we found afterwards she had already more travellers
staying with her than she could very well accommo-
date.
I had shot a pretty mot-mot on the road, and proceeded
to skin it, to the amusement and delight of about a.
dozen spectators, who wondered what I could want
with the “hide ’’ of a bird, the only skinning that they
had ever seen being that of deer and cattle. A native
doctor, who was staying at the house, insisted on helping
me, and as the mot-mot's skin is very tough, he did not
do much harm. The bird had been shot in the morning,
and some one remarking that no blood flowed when it
was cut, the doctor said, with a wise air, that that class
of birds had no blood, and that he knew of another class
that also had none, to which his auditors gave a satisfied
“Como no” (“Why not ?”). He also gave us to
understand that he had himself at one time skinned
birds, and being evidently looked up to as an authority
on all subjects by the simple country people, he was
unwilling that his reputation should suffer by it being
200 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
Supposed that a stranger had come to Comoapa who
Rnew something that he did not. Having skinned my bird
and put it out in the sun to dry, I took a stroll through
the small town, and found it composed mostly of huts
inhabited by Mestizos, with a tumble-down church and a
weed-covered plaza. Around some of the houses were
planted mango and orange trees, but there was a general
air of dilapidation and decay, and not a single sign of
industry or progress visible.
Velasquez arrived at dusk, having ridden from Liber-
tad that day. About a dozen of us slung our hammocks
in the small travellers' room, where, when we had all
got to rest, we looked like a cluster of great bats
hanging from the rafters. No one could get along the
room without disturbing everyone else, and the next
morning all were early astir; we got our animals
saddled as soon as possible, and set off on our journey.
It was a clear and beautiful morning, and a cool breeze
from the north-east fanned us as we rode blithely over
grassy savannahs and hills. High up in the air soared
a couple of large black vultures, floating on the wind,
and describing large circles without apparent movement
or exertion, scanning from their airy height the country
for miles around, on the look out for their carrion food.
Like all birds that soar, both over sea and land, when it
is calm the vultures are obliged to flap their wings when
they fly; but when a breeze is blowing they are able to
use their specific gravity as a fulcrum, by means of which
they present their bodies and outstretched wings and
tails at various angles to the wind, and literally sail.
How often, when becalmed on Southern Seas, when not a
breath of air was stirring and the Sails idly flapped
Ch. XI.] |FLIGHT OF BIRDS IN STORMS. 201
against the mast, have I seen the albatross, the petrel,
and the Cape-pigeon resting on the water, or rising with
difficulty, and only by the constant motion of their long
wings able to fly at all. But when a breeze sprang up
they were all life and motion, wheeling in graceful
circles, now presenting one side, now the other, to view,
descending rapidly with the wind, and so gaining velocity
to turn and rise up again against it. Then, as the breeze
freshened to a gale, the petrels darted about, playing
round and round the scudding ship, at home on the
wings of the storm, poising themselves upon the wind as
instinctively and with as little effort as a man balances
himself on his feet. How the old times came up again
as I rode over the savannah, and the Soaring vultures
brought back to my mind the wheeling stormy petrels
that darted about whilst under close-reefed topsails we
Scudded before the gale, rounding the stormy southern
cape; when great blue seas, “green glimmering towards
the summit,” towered on every side, or struck our
gallant ship like a sledge, making it shiver with the
blow, and sending a driving cloud of spray from stem
to stern. Then the petrels were in their element;
then they darted about, now on one side, now on
the other—above, below, now here, now there—all
life and motion; as if their greatest pleasure was, like
Ariel, “to ride on the curled cloud’’ and “point the
tempest.” -
We were travelling nearly parallel with the edge of
the great forest which was two or three miles away on
our right; in all other directions the river was bounded
by ranges, some grassed to their tops, others with forests
climbing up their steep sides, excepting where white
202 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
cliffs gave no foothold for the trees. We passed several
grass-thatched huts inhabited by half-clad Indians or
Mestizos, who generally possess a few cows and, away on
the edge of the forest, small clearings of maize. These
people, with unlimited fertile land at their disposal, were
all sunk in what looked like squalid poverty; but they
had a roof over their heads, and sufficient, though coarse,
food; and they cared for nothing more. Our road lay
a couple of miles to the north of the village of Huaco,
where much of the maize of the province is grown; the
road then led over many swampy valleys, and our beasts
had hard work plunging through the mud. We passed
through La Puerta, a scattered collection of Indian huts;
then over a river called the Aguasco, running to the
east, and probably emptying into the Rio Grande.
There were a few orange trees about some of the huts,
but most of the people were Mestizos, or half-breeds, and
nothing but weeds grew around their habitations. Their
plantations of maize were always some miles distant, and
they never seem to think of moving their houses nearer
to their clearings on the edge of the forest. Nearly
always when I asked the question, I found that the
grown-up people had been born on the spot where they
lived, and they are evidently greatly attached to the
localities where they have been brought up. Probably
when the settlements were first made, forest land lay
near, in which they made their clearings and raised their
crops of corn. Since then the edge of the forest has
been beaten back some miles to the north-east; but the
people cling to the old spots, where, generation after
generation, their ancestors have lived and died. A new
house could be built in a few days, closer to the forest;
Ch. XI.] NAMES OF RIVERS. 203
but they prefer travelling several miles every day to
and from their clearings, rather than desert their old
homes.
Beyond the Aguasco, we had to travel over a Swampy
plain for about a mile, our animals plunging all the time
through about three feet of mud. This plain was covered
with thousands of guayava trees, laden with sufficient
fruit to make guava jelly for all the world. After floun-
dering through the Swamp, we reached more savannahs,
and then entered a beautiful valley, well grassed, and
with herds of fine cattle, horses, and mules grazing on it.
The grass was well cropped, and looked like pasture-
land at home. The ground was now firmer, and we got
more rapidly across it. A flock of wild Muscovy ducks
flew heavily across the plain, looking very like the tame
variety; and I do not wonder at sportsmen sometimes
being unwilling to fire at them, thinking that they might
be domestic ducks. The tame variety is very prolific,
and sits better on its eggs than the common duck. I
have seen twenty ducklings brought out at a single
hatching. They are very good eating, and a large one
has nearly as much flesh upon it as an average-sized
goose.
About dusk on these plains, which extended around
for several miles, we reached the cattle hacienda of
Olama, where was a large tile-roofed house, near a river
of the same name. The natives of Nicaragua seldom
give distinctive names to their rivers, but call them after
the towns or villages on their banks. Thus, at Olama,
the river was called the Olama river; higher up, at
Matagalpa, the same stream is called the Matagalpa
river; and at Jinotego the Jinotego river. The Caribs
204 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
however, who live on the rivers, and use them as high-
ways, have names for them all; but to the agricultural
Indians and Mestizos of the interior, they are but reser-
voirs of water, crossed at distant points by their roads,
and everywhere amongst them. I found the greatest
ignorance to prevail as to the connection of the different
streams, and of their outflow to the ocean. All the
streams about Olama flow eastward, and join together to
form the Rio Grande, that reaches the Atlantic about
midway betwen Blewfields and the river Wanks; it is
very incorrectly marked on all the maps of Nicaragua
that I have seen.
The Caribs from the lower parts of the river occa-
Sionally come up in their canoes to Olama, and bring
with them common guns and iron pots that they have
obtained from the mahogany cutters at the mouth of the
river. These they barter for dogs. I could not ascertain
what they wanted with the dogs, but both at this place
and at Matagalpa I was told of the great value the
Caribs put on them. Although the people of Olama
expressed great surprise that the “Caritos,” as they call
the river Indians, should take so much trouble to obtain
dogs, they had not had the curiosity to ask them what
they wanted them for. Some people near the river have
even commenced to rear dogs, to supply the demand.
The Caribs had a special liking for black ones, and
did not value those of any other colour so much. They
would barter a gun or a large iron pot for a single'dog, if
it was of the right colour.
The common dogs of Central America are a mongrel
breed—not differing, I believe, from those of Europe.
There are usually a number of curs about the Indian
Ch. XI.] THE HAIRLESS DOG. 205
houses that run out barking at a stranger, but seldom
bite. -
The hairless dogs, mentioned by Humboldt, as being
abundant in Peru,” are not common in Central America,
but there are a few to be met with. At Colon I saw
several. They are of a shining dark colour, and are
quite without hair, excepting a little on the face and on
the top of the tail. Both in Peru and Mexico this
variety was found by the Spanish conquerors. It would
be interesting to have these dogs compared with the
hairless dogs of China, which Humboldt says have cer-
tainly been extremely common since very early times.
Perhaps another link might be added to the broken
chain of evidence that connects the peoples of the two
countries.
A large naked dog-like animal is figured by Clavigero
as one of the indigenous animals of Mexico. It was
called Xoloitzcuintli by the Mexicans; and Humboldt
considers it was distinct from the hairless dog, and was
a large dog-like wolf. Its name does not support this
view; Xoloitzcuinth literally means “a servant dog,”
from “Yolotſ,” a slave or servant, and it2cuintli, a dog;
and we find the word Xolotl in Hueallotſ, the Aztec name
of the common turkey, which was domesticated by them,
and largely used as food. I am led to believe from this,
that Xolotl was applied to any animal that lived in the
house or was domesticated, and that the Xoloitzcuintli
was merely a large variety of the hairless dog. Clavi.
gero's description of it would fit the hairless dog of the
present day very well, excepting the size ; he says, it was
four feet long, totally naked, excepting a few stiff hairs
* “Aspects of Nature,” vol. i. p. 109.
206 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
on its snout, and ash coloured, spotted with black and
tawny.
Tschudi makes two races of indigenous dogs in tropical
America. 1. The Canis caraibicus (Lesson), without
hair, and which does not bark. 2. The Canis ingae
(Tschudi), the common hairy dog, which has pointed nose
and ears, and barks.” The small eatable dog of the
Mexicans was called by them Techichi ; and Humboldt de-
rives the name from Tetſ, a stone, and says that it means
“a dumb dog,” but this appears rather a forced deriva-
tion. Chichi is Aztec for “to suck; ” and it seems to me
more probable that the little dogs they eat, and which
are spoken of by the Spaniards as making very tender
and delicate food, were the puppies of the Xoloitscuintli,
and that Techichi meant “a sucker.”
Whether the hairless dog was or was not the Techichi
of which the Mexicans made such savoury dishes is an
open question, but there can be no doubt that the former
was found in tropical America by the Spanish con-
querors, and that it has survived to the present time,
with little or no change. That it should not have inter-
mixed with the common haired variety, and lost its
distinctive characters, is very remarkable. It has not
been artificially preserved, for instead of being looked on
with favour by the Indians, Humboldt states that in
|Peru, where it is abundant, it is despised and ill-treated.
Under such circumstances, the variety can only have
been preserved through not interbreeding with the
common form, either from a dislike to such unions, or
by some amount of sterility when they are formed.
* J. J. von Tschudi, quoted by Humboldt, “Aspects of Nature,”
English edition, vol. i. p. 111.
Ch. XI.] NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SELECTION. 207
This is, I think, in favour of the inference that the
variety has been produced by natural and not by artifi-
cial selection, for diminished fertility is seldom or never
acquired between artificial varieties.
Man isolates varieties, and breeds from them, and
continuing to separate those that vary in the direction
he wishes to follow, a very great difference is, in a com-
paratively short time, produced. But these artificial
varieties, though often more different from each other
than some natural species, readily interbreed, and if left
to themselves, rapidly revert to a common type. In
natural selection there is a great and fundamental
difference. The varieties that arise can seldom be sepa-
rated from the parent form and from other varieties,
until they vary also in the elements of reproduction.
Thousands of varieties probably revert to the parent
type, but if at last one is produced that breeds only with
its own form, we can easily see how a new species might
be segregated. As long as varieties interbreed together
and with the parent form, it does not seem possible that
a new species could be formed by natural selection,
excepting in cases of geographical isolation. All the
individuals might vary in some one direction, but they
could not split up into distinct species whilst they oc-
cupied the same area and interbred without difficulty.
before a variety can become permanent, it must be
either separated from the others, or have acquired some
disinclination or inability to interbreed with them. As
long as they interbreed together, the possible divergence
is kept within narrow limits, but whenever a variety
is produced, the individuals of which have a partiality
for interbreeding, and some amount of sterility when
208 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
crossed with another form, the tie that bound it to the
central stock is loosened, and the foundation is laid for
the formation of a new species. Further divergence
would be unchecked, or only slightly checked, and the
elements of reproduction having begun to vary, would
probably continue to diverge from the parent form, for
Darwin has shown that any organ in which a species
has begun to vary, is liable to further change in the
same direction.* Thus one of the best tests of the
specific difference of two allied forms living together,
is their sterility when crossed, and nearly allied species
Separated by geographical barriers are more likely to
interbreed than those inhabiting the same area. Ar-
tificial selection is more rapid in its results, but less
stable than that of nature, because the barriers that man
raises to prevent intermingling of varieties are tempo-
rary and partial, whilst that which nature fixes when
sterility arises is permanent and complete.
For these reasons I think that the fact that the hair-
less dog of tropical America has not interbred with the
common form, and regained its hairy coat, is in favour of
the inference that the variety has been produced by
natural and not by artificial selection. By this I do not
mean that it has arisen as a wild variety, for it is
probable that its domestication was an important ele-
ment amongst the causes that led to its formation, but
that it has not been produced by man selecting the
individuals to breed from that had the least covering of
hairs. I cannot agree with Some eminent naturalists
that the loss of a hairy covering would always be disad-
* See “Animals and Plants under Domestication,” vol. ii. p. 241.
Ch. XI.] PLAGUE OF TICKS. 209
vantageous. My experience in tropical countries has led
me to the conclusion that in such parts at least there is
one serious drawback to the advantages of having the
skin covered with hair. It affords cover for parasitical
insects, which, if the skin were naked, might more easily
be got rid of.
No one who has not lived and moved about amongst
the bush of the tropics can appreciate what a torment
the different parasitical species of acarus or ticks are.
On my first journey in northern Brazil, I had my legs
inflamed and ulcerated from the ankles to the knees,
from the irritation produced by a minute red tick that is
brushed off the low shrubs, and attaches itself to the
passer-by. This little insect is called the “Mocoim ''
by the Brazilians, and is a great torment. It is so
minute that except by careful searching it cannot be
perceived, and it causes an intolerable itching. If the
skin were thickly covered with hair, it would be next to
impossible to get rid of it. Through all tropical
America, during the dry season, a brown tick (Iacodes
bovis), varying in size from a pin's head to a pea, is
very abundant. In Nicaragua, in April, they are very
small, and swarm upon the plains, so that the traveller
often gets covered with them. They get up on the tips
of the leaves and shoots of low shrubs, and stand with
their hind legs stretched out. Each foot has two hooks
or claws, and with these it lays hold of any animal
brushing past. All large land animals seem subject to
their attacks. I have seen them on Snakes and iguanas,
On many of the large birds, especially on the curassows,
and they abound on all the larger mammals, together
with some of the small ones. Sick and weak animals are
P
2} () THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI.
particularly infested with them, probably because they
have not the strength to rub and pick them off, and they
must often hasten, if they do not cause their death. The
herdsmen, or “vacqueros,” keep a ball of soft wax at
their houses, which they rub over their skin when they
come in from the plains, the small “garrapatos” stick-
ing to it, whilst the larger ones are picked off. How
the small ones would be got rid of if the skin had a
hairy coat I know not, but the torment of the ticks
would certainly be greatly increased.
There are other insect parasites, for the increase and
protection of which a hairy coating is even more favour-
able than it is for the ticks. The Pediculi are specially
adapted to live amongst hair, their limbs being con-
structed for clinging to it. They deposit their nits or
eggs amongst it, fastening them securely to the bases of
the hairs. Although the pediculi are almost unknown to
the middle and upper classes of civilized communities,
in consequence of the cleanliness of their persons,
clothing, and houses, they abound amongst Savage and
half-civilized people. A slight immunity from the
attacks of acari and pediculi might in a tropical country
more than compensate an animal for the loss of its hairy
coat, especially in the case of the domesticated dog,
which shelters with its master, has not to seek for its
food at night, and is protected by being domiciled with
man from the attacks of stronger animals. In the huts
of savages dogs are greatly exposed to the attacks of
parasitical insects, for vermin generally abound in such
localities. Man is the only species amongst the higher
primates that lives for months and years, often from ge-
neration to generation, on the same spot. Monkeys change
Ch. XI.] FIAIR AND PARASITES. 211
their sleeping places almost daily. The Ourang-outang,
that makes a nest of the boughs of trees, is said to con-
struct a fresh one every night. The dwelling-places of
Savages, often made of, or lined with, the skins of
animals, with the dusty earth for a floor, harbour all
kinds of insect vermin, and produce and perpetuate skin
disease, due to the attacks of minute sarcopti; and if the
dog by losing its hair should obtain any protection from
these and other insect pests, instead of wondering that a
hairless breed of dogs has been produced in a tropical
country, I am more surprised that haired ones should
abound. That they do so must, I think, be owing to
man having preferred the haired breeds for their supe-
rior beauty and greater variety, and encouraged their
multiplication.
CHAPTER XII.
Olama—The “Sanate ”—Muy-muy—Idleness of the people—Moun-
tain road—The “bull rock”—The bull's-horn thorn—Ants kept
as standing armies by some plants—Use of honey-secreting
glands — Plant-lice, scale-insects, and leaf-hoppers furnish
ants with honey, and in return are protected by the latter–Con-
test between wasps and ants—Waxy secretions of the homop-
terous hemiptera.
WE rode up to the large hacienda at Olama, and were
asked to alight by a man whom I at first took to be the
proprietor, but afterwards discovered was a traveller like
ourselves, buying cattle for the Leon market. The
owner of the house and his sister were away at a little
town three or four miles distant; and I was a little
nervous about the reception we should have when they
returned and found us making ourselves at home at their
house; but Velasquez had no apprehensions on that
Score, as he knew that throughout the central departments
of Nicaragua it was the custom for travellers to expect
and to receive a welcome at any house they might arrive
at at nightfall. Excepting in the towns, and on some of
the main roads, there are no houses where travellers can
stop and pay for a night's lodging; but every one expects
to be called on to give a night’s shelter. This is all that
is given, as travellers carry with them their hammocks
and food. About an hour after dark, the owner and his
Ch. XII.] HABITS OF THE SANATE. 213
sister returned on mules; and the gentleman seemed
pleased at finding us at his house. I was going to offer
a chair to the sister; but Velasquez told me it was not
the custom to show any civilities to the ladies, as they
would probably be misconstrued. After a while, the
master had some chocolate brought to him by his sister,
who waited upon him. The wife, the sister, and the
daughter in the departments seldom sit down to their
meals with the master of the house, but attend upon him
like servants. -
THE SANATE, OR QUISCALUS.
Whilst coffee was preparing next morning, I strolled
about the outbuildings, and was much amused at the
antics of a jet black Quiscalus, called “sanate” by the

214 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
natives. They are about the size of a magpie, with
much of the active movements of that bird. They are
generally seen about cattle, sometimes picking the garra-
patoes off them, but more often one on each side, watching
for the grasshoppers and other insects, that are frightened
up as the cattle feed. On this morning, there were
several of them on the top of a shed. Every now and
then one would ruffle out its feathers, open its wings a
little, give a step or two forward towards another, stretch
out its neck, open its bill, and then give rather a long
Squeak-like whistle. As soon as it had done this, it
would hurriedly close its feathers and wings, and hold its
head straight up, with its bill pointing to the sky. All
its movements were grotesque; and its sudden change in
appearance after delivering its cry was ludicrous. It
appeared as if it was ashamed of what it had done, and
was trying to look as if it had not done it—just as I have
seen a schoolboy throw a snowball, and then stand rigidly
looking another way. After a few moments, the “sanate”
would lower its head, and, in a short time, go through
the same performance again, repeating every movement
exactly, as if it had been an automaton.
Bidding adieu to our host, we rode over grassy
Savannahs, with much cattle feeding on them, and in
about five miles reached a small village called Muy-muy,
which means in Spanish, very-very. I think it is a cor-
ruption of an old Indian word “Muyo,” met with in
other Indian names of towns, as, for instance, in
Muyogalpa. After riding all round the plaza, which
formed three-fourths of the town, we at last found a
house where they consented to make us some tortillas, on
condition that we would buy some native cheese also.
Ch. XII.] JOURNEY CONTINUED. 215
The land around was fertile, but the people too lazy to
cultivate it. Many of the houses were dilapidated huts;
and the place altogether had a most depressing aspect of
poverty and idleness. I asked one man what the people
Worked at. He said, “Nada, nada, senhor,” that is,
“Nothing, nothing, sir.” Some of them possess cattle ;
and those that have none sometimes help those that have,
and get enough to keep them alive. The principal subject
of interest seemed to be the “caritos,” who had come up
the river, and given them guns and iron pots for their
black dogs; but no one had the curiosity to ask what
they wanted the dogs for. It was Sunday, and many
of the country people from around had come into the
village. All that had any money were at the estancia,
drinking aguardiente. The men were dressed alike, with
palm-tree hats, white calico jackets, and trowsers; the
latter, often on one leg rolled up to the thigh, as is the
fashion in this part of the world. Nearly all were bare-
footed.
Having breakfasted off tortillas and cheese, we con-
tinued our journey, and crossed two rivers running to the
eastward; then ascended a high and rocky range, along
the top tof which the path lay. We took this mountain-
path to avoid some very bad swamps that we were told
we should encounter if we went by the main road. The
mountain range was bare and bleak; but we had a fine
view over the surrounding country. Opposite to us, on
the other side of a wide valley, was a similar range to
that along which we were travelling, the sides partly
wooded and partly cleared for planting maize. We
passed several Indian huts with grass-thatched roofs,
and met a party of Indians travelling down the mountain
216 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
in single-file, each man carrying his bow and arrows.
They were going down to Huaco to buy corn, the
maize crop having failed around Matagalpa the last
season. The mountain road, though dry, was rocky, with
steep ascents, and our mules got very tired. About five
o'clock we descended from the hills into the valley of
Ocalca, near to which there had been some gold workings,
now abandoned. Here we came in sight, for the first
time, of the pine forests, a high range a few miles to the
north being covered with them.
About dusk, we reached an Indian hut, and proposed
staying there for the night. The owners were pure
Indians; the women, engaged as usual in grinding maize,
were naked to the waist. There was an old man and
his son, and some children. The old Indian looked dis-
tressed at our proposal to take up our quarters there for
the night, but he made no objection. The accommoda-
tion was very poor, there being no hammocks or bed-
steads ; and I think all the inmates must have slept
above on Some bamboos that were laid across the beams.
Learning from the old man that there was a larger and
better house a little further on, we relieved him of our
company; and crossing a river, reached a cattle hacienda
owned by a very stout native named Blandon, who made
us welcome. The house was a large one; and there
were a number of mozos and women-Servants about.
We asked if we could buy anything to eat; and Señor
Blandon said he would get supper prepared, at which
we were much pleased, as we had had nothing all day
excepting a drink of coffee at daylight, and some tortillas
and cheese at Muy-muy. After waiting a long time, we
were invited to Our Supper; and on going into an inner
Ch. XII.] ROCK-CARWING. 217
room, found it consisted only of coffee and two small
cakes called “noskears” for each of us; and we were
told they had nothing else to offer us. So, munching our
dry noskears, we mumbled over them as long as we
could, and did not waste a crumb, wondering how our
host got so fat on such fare. We were as hungry when
we finished as when we began, and soon laid down on
our hard couches to forget our hunger in sleep.
We started off early the next morning, as we were
within a few leagues of the town of Matagalpa, and knew
when we got there we should obtain plenty of provisions.
About a league before arriving at Matagalpa there is a
high range, with perpendicular cliffs near the summit.
Rito told us that near the base of these cliffs there was a
carving of a bull, and that the place was enchanted. I
had heard in other parts stories of bulls being engraved
or painted on rocks, but was very doubtful about their
being true, as, up to the advent of the Spaniards, the
Indians of Central America had never seen any cattle;
and since the conquest they appear to have entirely
given up their ancient practice of carving on stone, whilst
the Spaniards and half-breeds have never learnt the art ;
So that I have never seen a single carving in the central
departments that could be ascribed to a later period than
the Spanish conquest. -
Tired and hungry though we were, I was determined
to put this story to the test; SO Velasquez and I climbed
up to the cliffs, and searched all round them, but could
find no carving. At one place there was a large black
stain on the cliff, produced by the trickling down of
water from above ; and I afterwards learnt that this
stain at a distance somewhat resembled a bull, and a
218 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
little imagination completed the likeness. The lady of
the house where we stayed at Matagalpa assured us she
had seen it, and that everything appertaining to a bull was
there. This she insisted on with a minuteness of detail
rather embarrassing to a fastidious auditor.
Clambering down the rocks, we reached our horse and
mule, and started off again, passing over dry weedy hills.
One low tree, very characteristic of the dry savannahs, I
have only incidentally mentioned before. It is a species
of acacia, belonging to the section Gummiferae, with
bi-pinnate leaves, growing to a height of fifteen or twenty
feet. The branches and trunk are covered with strong
curved spines, set in pairs, from which it receives the
name of the bull's-horn thorn, they having a very strong
THE BULL's-HORN THORN.
resemblance to the horns of that quadruped. These
thorns are hollow, and are tenanted by ants, that make a
small hole for their entrance and exit near one end of the
thorn, and also burrow through the partition that separates

Ch. XII.] ADAPTATION OF A TREE TO ITS ANTS. 219
the two horns; so that the one entrance serves for both.
Here they rear their young, and in the wet season every
one of the thorns is tenanted; and hundreds of ants are
to be seen running about, especially over the young
leaves. If one of these be touched, or a branch shaken,
the little ants (Pseudomyrma bicolor, Guer.) swarm out
from the hollow thorns, and attack the aggressor with
jaws and sting. They sting severely, raising a little
White lump that does not disappear in less than twenty-
four hours.
These ants form a most efficient standing army for the
plant, which prevents not only the mammalia from brows-
ing on the leaves, but deliversit from the attacks of a much
more dangerous enemy—the leaf-cutting ants. For these
services the ants are not only securely housed by the plant,
but are provided with a bountiful supply of food; and to
Secure their attendance at the right time and place, this
food is so arranged and distributed as to effect that object
with wonderful perfection. The leaves are bi-pinnate.
At the base of each pair of leaflets, on the mid-rib, is a
crater-formed gland, which, when the leaves are young,
Secretes a homey-like liquid. Of this the ants are very
fond ; and they are constantly running about from one
gland to another to sip up the honey as it is Secreted.
But this is not all; there is a still more wonderful pro-
vision of more solid food. At the end of each of the
Small divisions of the compound leaflet there is, when
the leaf first unfolds, a little yellow fruit-like body united
by a point at its base to the end of the pinnule.
Examined through a microscope, this little appendage
looks like a golden pear. When the leaf first unfolds,
the little pears are not quite ripe, and the ants are con-
220 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII. .
tinually employed going from one to another, examining
them. When an ant finds one sufficiently advanced, it
bites the small point of attachment; then, bending down
the fruit-like body, it breaks it off and bears it away in
triumph to the nest. All the fruit-like bodies do not
ripen at once, but successively, so that the ants are kept
about the young leaf for some time after it unfolds.
Thus the young leaf is always guarded by the ants; and
no caterpillar or larger animal could attempt to injure
them without being attacked by the little warriors. The
fruit-like bodies are about one-twelfth of an inch long,
and are about one-third of the size of the ants; so that the
ant bearing one away is as heavily laden as a man bear-
ing a large bunch of plantains. I think these facts show
that the ants are really kept by the acacia as a standing
army, to protect its leaves from the attacks of herbivorous
mammals and insects.
The bull's-horn thorn does not grow at the mines in
the forest, nor are the small ants attending on them
found there. They seem specially adapted for the tree,
and I have seen them nowhere else. Besides the Pseudo-
myrma, I found another ant that lives on these acacias;
it is a small black species of Crematogaster, whose habits
appear to be rather different from those of Pseudo-
myrma. It makes the holes of entrance to the thorns
near the centre of one of each pair, and not near the end,
like the Pseudomyrma ; and it is not so active as that
species. It is also rather scarce; but when it does occur,
it occupies the whole tree, to the exclusion of the other.
The glands on the acacia are also frequented by a small
species of wasp (Polybia occidentalis). I sowed the seeds
of the acacia in my garden, and reared some young
Ch. XII.] THE BULL’S-HORN THORN ANT. 221
plants. Ants of many kinds were numerous; but none
of them took to the thorns for shelter, nor the glands
and fruit-like bodies for food; for, as I have already
mentioned, the species that attend on the thorns are not
found in the forest. The leaf-cutting ants attacked the
young plants, and defoliated them; but I have never
seen any of the trees out on the Savannahs that are
guarded by the Pseudomyrma touched by them, and have
no doubt the acacia is protected from them by its
little warriors. The thorns, when they are first de-
veloped, are soft, and filled with a sweetish, pulpy
substance; so that the ant, when it makes an entrance
into them, finds its new house full of food. It hollows
this out, leaving only the hardened shell of the thorn.
Strange to say, this treatment seems to favour the
development of the thorn, as it increases in size, bulging
out towards the base; whilst in my plants that were not
touched by the ants, the thorns turned yellow and dried
up into dead but persistent prickles. I am not sure, how-
ever, that this may not have been due to the habitat of
the plant not suiting it. -
These ants seem to lead the happiest of existences.
Protected by their stings, they fear no foe. Habitations
full of food are provided for them to commence house-
keeping with ; and cups of nectar and luscious fruits
await them every day. But there is a reverse to the
picture. In the dry season on the plains, the acacias
cease to grow. No young leaves are produced, and the
old glands do not secrete honey. Then want and hunger
overtake the ants that have revelled in luxury all the
wet season ; many of the thorns are depopulated, and
only a few ants live through the season of scarcity. As
222 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XII.
soon, however, as the first rains set in, the trees throw
out numerous vigorous shoots, and the ants multiply
again with astonishing rapidity.
Doth in Brazil and Nicaragua I paid much attention
to the relation between the presence of honey-Secreting
glands on plants, and the protection the latter secured
by the attendance of ants attracted by the honey. I
found many plants so protected; the glands being
specially developed on the young leaves, and on the
sepals of the flowers. Besides the bull's-horn acacias,
I, however, only met with two other genera of plants
that furnished the ants with houses, namely, the Cecropiae
and some of the Melastoma, ; but I have no doubt that
there are many others. The stem of the Cecropia, or
trumpet-tree, is hollow, and divided into cells by parti-
tions that extend across the interior of the hollow trunk.
The ants gain access by making a hole from the outside,
and then burrow through the partitions, thus getting the
run of the whole stem. They do not obtain their food
directly from the tree, but keep brown scale-insects
(Coccidae) in the cells, which suck the juices from the
tree, and secrete a honey-like fluid that exudes from a
pore on the back, and is lapped up by the ants. In one
cell eggs will be found, in another grubs, and in a third
pupae, all lying loosely. In another cell, by itself, a
queen ant will be found, surrounded by walls made of a
brown waxy-looking substance, along with about a dozen
coccidae to supply her with food. I suppose the eggs are
removed as soon as laid, for I never found any along
with the queen-ant. If the tree be shaken, the ants
rush out in myriads, and search about for the molester.
Ch. XII.] MELASTOM AF AND THEIR ANTS, 223
This case is not like the last one, where the tree has
provided food and shelter for the ants, but rather one
where the ant has taken possession of the tree, and
brought with it the coccidae; but I believe that its pre-
sence must be beneficial. I have cut into some dozens
of the cecropia trees, and never could find one that was
not tenanted by ants. I noticed three different species,
all, as far as T know, confined to the cecropiae, and all
farming scale-insects. As in the bull's-horn thorn, there
is never more than one species of ant on the same tree.
In some species of Melastomas there is a direct provi-
sion of houses for the ants. In each leaf, at the base of
~~~ * \ !,
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~~~~
**gº-zeatre. tºy
Sº = −.
Sr*_
Sr. º-º:
-->†<!
LEAF OF MELASTONIA.
the laminae, the petiole, or stalk, is furnished with a
couple of pouches, divided from each other by the mid-
rib, as shown in the figure. Into each of these pouches
there is an entrance from the lower side of the leaf. I








224 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
noticed them first in Northern Brazil, in the province of
Maranham; and afterwards at Pará. Every pouch was
occupied by a nest of small black ants; and if the leaf
was shaken ever so little, they would rush out and Scour
all over it in search of the aggressor. I must have tested
Some hundreds of leaves, and never shook one without
the ants coming out, excepting one sickly-looking plant
at Pará. In many of the pouches I noticed the eggs
and young ants, and in some I saw a few dark-coloured
coccidae or aphides; but my attention had not been at
that time directed to the latter as supplying the ants
with food, and I did not examine a sufficient number of
pouches to determine whether they were constant occu-
pants of the nests or not ; but my experience since with
the cecropia trees would lead me to expect that they
were. If so, we have an instance of two insects and a
plant living together, and all benefited by the com-
panionship. The leaves of the plant are guarded by the
ants; the ants are provided with houses by the plant,
and food by the coccidae or aphides; and the latter are
effectually protected by the ants in their common habi-
tation.
Amongst the numerous plants that do not provide
houses, but attract ants to their leaves and flower-buds
by means of glands secreting a honey-like liquid, are
many epiphytal orchids, and I think all the species of
Passiflora. I had the common red passion-flower grow-
ing over the front of my verandah, where it was con-
tinually under my notice. It had honey-secreting glands
on its young leaves and on the sepals of the flower-buds.
For two years I noticed that the glands were constantly
attended by a small ant (Pheidole), and, night and day,
Ch. XII.] USE OF HONEY-SECRETING GLANDS. 225
every young leaf and every flower-bud had a few on
them. They did not sting, but attacked and bit my
finger when I touched the plant. I have no doubt that
the primary object of these honey-glands was to attract
the ants, and keep them about the most tender and
vulnerable parts of the plant, to prevent them being
injured ; and I further believe that one of the principal
enemies that they serve to guard against in tropical
America is the leaf-cutting ant, as I have noticed that
the latter are very much afraid of the Small black ants.
On the third year after I had noticed the attendance
of the ants on my passion-flower, I found that the glands
were not so well looked after as before, and soon dis-
covered that a number of scale-insects had established
themselves on the stems, and that the ants had in a
great measure transferred their attentions to them. An
ant would stand over a scale-insect and stroke it alter-
nately on each side with its antennae, whereupon every
now and then a clear drop of honey would exude from a
pore on the back of the scale-insect and be imbibed by
the ant. Here it was clear that the scale-insect was
competing successfully with the leaves and sepals for the
attendance and protection of the ants, and was suc-
cessful either through the fluid it furnished being more
attractive or more abundant. I have, from these facts,
been led to the conclusion that the use of honey-secreting
glands in plants is to attract insects that will protect the
flower-buds and leaves from being injured by herbivorous
insects and mammals; but I do not mean to infer that
this is the use of all glands, for many of the small appen-
dicular bodies, called “glands” by botanists, do not
Secrete honey. The common dog-rose of England is fur-
- Q
226 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
nished with glands on the stipules, and in other species
they are more Inumerous, until in the wild Rosa villosa of
the northern counties the leaves are thickly edged, and
the fruit and sepals covered with stalked glands. I have
only observed the wild roses in the north of England,
but there I have never seen insects attending the glands.
These glands, however, do not secrete honey; but a dark,
resinous, sticky liquid, that probably is useful by being
distasteful to both insects and mammals.
If the facts I have described are sufficient to show that
some plants are benefited by supplying ants with honey
from glands on their leaves and flower-buds, I shall not
have much difficulty in proving that many plant-lice,
scale-insects, and leaf-hoppers, that also attract ants by
furnishing them with honey-like food, are similarly bene-
fited. The aphides are the principal ant-cows of Europe.
In the tropics their place is taken in a great measure by
species of coccidae and genera of Homoptera, such as
Membracis and its allies. My pine-apples were greatly
subject to the attacks of a small, soft-bodied, brown
coccus, that was always guarded by a little, black,
stinging ant (Solenopsis). This ant took great care of
the scale-insects, and attacked savagely anyone inter-
fering with them, as I often found to my cost, when
trying to clear my pines, by being stung severely by
them. Not content with watching over their cattle,
the ants brought up grains of damp earth, and built
domed galleries over them, in which, under the vigi-
lant guard of their Savage little attendants, the scale-
insects must, I think, have been secure from the attacks
of all enemies.
Many of the leaf-hoppers—species, I think, of Mem-
Ch. XII.] ANTS AND THEIR PROTEGES. 227
bracis—were attended by ants. These leaf-hoppers live
in little clusters on shoots of plants and beneath leaves,
in which are hoppers in every stage of development—
eggs, larvae, and adults. I believe it is only the soft-
bodied larvae that exude honey. It would take a volume
to describe the various species, and I shall confine my
remarks to one whose habits I was able to observe with
Some minuteness. The papaw trees growing in my
garden were infested by a small brown species of Mem-
bracis—one of the leaf-hoppers that laid its eggs in a
cottony nest by the side of the ribs on the under-part
of the leaves. The hopper would stand covering the nest
until the young were hatched. These were little soft-
bodied dark-coloured insects, looking like aphides, but
more robust, and with the hind segments turned up.
From the end of these the little larvae exuded drops of
honey, and were assiduously attended by small ants
belonging to two species of the genus Pheidole, one of
them being the same as I have already described as
attending the glands on the passion-flower. One tree
would be attended by one species, another by the other ;
and I never saw the two species on the same tree. A
third ant, however—a species of Hypoclinea—which I
have mentioned before as a cowardly species, whose nests
were despoiled by the Ecitons, frequented all the trees,
and whenever it found any young hoppers unattended, it
would relieve them of their honey, but would scamper
away on the approach of any of the Pheidoſe. The latter
do not sting, but they attack and bite the hand if the
young hoppers are interfered with. These leaf-hoppers
are, when young, so soft-bodied and sluggish in their
movements, and there are so many enemies ready to
Q 2
223 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
prey upon them, that I imagine that in the tropics many
species would be exterminated if it were not for the pro-
tection of the ants.
Similarly as, on the savannahs, I had observed a wasp
attending the honey-glands of the bull's-horn acacia
along with the ants; so at Santo Domingo another wasp,
belonging to quite a different genus (Nectarina), attended
Some of the clusters of frog-hoppers, and for the posses-
Sion of others a constant skirmishing was going on. The
wasp stroked the young hoppers, and Sipped up the
honey when it was exuded, just like the ants. When an
ant came up to a cluster of leaf-hoppers attended by a
wasp, the latter would not attempt to grapple with its rival
on the leaf, but would fly off and hover over the ant;
then when its little foe was well exposed, it would dart
at it and strike it to the ground. The action was so
quick that I could not determine whether it struck with
its fore-feet or its jaws; but I think it was with the feet.
I often saw a wasp trying to clear a leaf from ants that
were already in full possession of a cluster of leaf-
hoppers. It would sometimes have to strike three or
four times at an ant before it made it quit its hold and
fall. At other times one ant after the other would be
struck off with great celerity and ease, and I fancied
that some wasps were much cleverer than others.
In those cases where it succeeded in clearing the leaf, it
was never left long in peace; for fresh relays of ants
were continually arriving, and generally tired the wasp
out. It would never wait for an ant to get near it,
doubtless knowing well that if its little rival once fastened
on its leg, it would be a difficult matter to get rid of
it again. If a wasp first obtained possession, it was able
Ch. XII.] USE OF COTTONY SECRETIONS. 229
to keep it; for the first ants that came up were only
pioneers, and by knocking these off it prevented them
from returning and scenting the trail to communicate
the intelligence to others.
|Before leaving this subject, I may remark that just as
in plants, some glands secrete honey that attracts insects,
others a resinous liquid that repels them, so the secre-
tions of different genera of the homopterous division of the
hemiptera are curiously modified for strikingly different
useful purposes. We have seen that by many species of
plant-lice, scale-insects, and leaf-hoppers, a honey-like
fluid is secreted that attracts ants to attend upon them.
Other species of aphides (Eriosoma) that have no honey-
tubes, and many of the coccidae, secrete a white, flocculent,
waxy cotton, under which they lie concealed. In many
of the Homoptera, this secretion only amounts to a white
powder covering the body, as in some of the Fulgoridae.
In others it is more abundant, and it reaches its extreme
limit in a species of Phenaa, that I found at Santo
Domingo. The insect is about an inch in length, but the
waxy secretion forms a long thick tail of cotton-like
fibres, two inches in length, that gives the insect a most
curious appearance when flying. This flocculent mass is
so loosely connected with the body that it is difficult to
catch the insect without breaking the greater part of it
off. Mr. Bates has suggested that the large brittle
wings of the metallic Morphos may often save them from
being caught by birds, who are likely to seize some portion
of the wide expanse of wing, and this, breaking off, frees
the butterfly. Probably the long cumbersome tail of
the Phenaa, has a similar use. When flying, it is the
only portion of the insect seen ; and birds trying to cap-
230 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XII.
ture it on the wing are likely to get only a mouthful of
the flocculent wax. The large Homoptera are much
preyed upon by birds. In April, when the cicada are
piping their shrill cry from morning until night, indi-
viduals are often seen whose bulky bodies have been
bitten off from the thorax by some bird; and the large
and graceful swallow-tailed kite at that time feeds on
nothing else. I have seen these kites sweeping round in
circles over the tree-tops, and every now and then
catching insects off the leaves, so that on shooting them. I
have found their crops filled with cicadae.
The frog-hoppers, besides exuding honey in some
genera and wax in others, in a third division emit, when
in the larvae state, a great quantity of froth, in which
they lie concealed, as in the common “cuckoo-spit” of
our meadows.
CHAPTER XIII.
Matagalpa--Aguardiente—Fermented liquors of the Indians—The
wine-palm—Idleness of the Nicaraguans–Pine and oak forests
—Mountain gorge—Jinotega–Native plough—Descendants of
the buccaneers—San Rafael—A mountain hut.
AT noon we arrived at Matagalpa, the capital of the
province of the same name. The town contains about
three thousand inhabitants; the province, or department,
about thirty thousand. Matagalpa is built close to the
river, on a rocky surface, with stony knolls rising up in
some parts amongst the houses. It contains three churches,
and the usual large square or plaza. Around, the
country appeared very dry and barren, and there is
scarcely any cultivation in the immediate neighbourhood.
We put up at one of the best houses in the town. The
family consisted of a stout lady, about fifty, and her
husband, their daughter and her husband, and an un-
married son. The two younger men appeared to do
nothing; the elder one had a contract with the govern-
ment to manufacture aguardiente for three towns, and
spent nearly all his time at a small hacienda, a league
distant, where he grew sugar-cane and maize, and
distilled the spirit.
There is a great deal of aguardiente, an inferior kind of
rum, sold throughout Nicaragua, and most of the Indians
make it a point in their religion to get drunk on their
232 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
feast-days, but at other times are a sober race. They do
not owe the introduction of intemperance to the Spaniards,
though they can now obtain stronger liquor than in the
old times, as the ancient Indians do not appear to have
known how to distil; but they made several kinds of
fermented liquors. In Mexico the chief drink was the
“ pulque,” the fermented juice of the agave or maguey
plant. In Nicaragua “chicha,” a kind of light beer,
made from maize, is still the favourite Indian beverage.
On the warmer plains, the wine-palm (Cocos butyracea)
is grown. I saw many of them near San Ubaldo. The
wine is very simply prepared. The tree is felled, and an
oblong hole cut into it, just below the crown of leaves.
This hole is eight inches deep, passing nearly through
the trunk. It is about a foot long and four inches broad;
and in this hollow the juice of the tree immediately
begins to collect, scarcely any running out at the butt
where it has been cut off. This tendency of the sap to
ascend is well shown in another plant, the water liana.
To get the water from this it must be cut first as high as
one can reach ; then about a foot from the ground, and
out of a length of about seven feet, a pint of fine cool
water will run ; but if cut at the bottom first, the sap
will ascend so rapidly that very little will be obtained.
In three days after cutting the wine-palm the hollow will
be filled with a clear yellowish wine, the fermented juice
of the tree; and this will continue to secrete daily for
twenty days, during which the tree will have yielded
some gallons of wine. I was told that a very large grove
of these trees were cut down by the Government near
Granada, on account of the excesses of the Indians, who
used to assemble there on their festivals, and get drunk
Ch. XIII.] NATIVE STILLS. 233
on the palm wine. The Indians of Nicaragua, when the
Spaniards first came amongst them, objected to the
preaching of the padres against intemperance. They
said “getting drunk did no man any harm.” -
The manufacture of aguardiente is a government
monopoly, which is farmed out to contractors. The
contracts are always given to the political supporters of
the party in power.
There are many private illegal stills in the mountains.
They are generally amongst thick forest, near a small
brook, with some dense brushwood close at hand, for the
distiller to slip into if any government officers should
come up. One day, when rambling in the woods near
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NATIVE STILL.
Santo Domingo, I came across one of these “sly grog"
manufactories. The apparatus was very simple. It
consisted of two of the common earthenware pots of the
country, one on the top of the other, the top one having



234 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
had the bottom taken out and luted to the lower one
with clay. This was put on a fire with the fermented
liquor. The spirit condensed against the flat bottom of
a tin dish that covered the top vessel, and into which
cold water was poured, and fell in drops on to a board,
that conducted it into a long wooden tube, from which it
dropped directly into bottles.
Matagalpa does not rise above the dullness of other
Nicaraguan towns; and there is a stagnation about it,
and utter absence of aim or effort in the people, that are
most distressing to a foreigner used to the bustle, busi-
ness, and diversions of European cities. A few women
washing in the river, or making tortillas or cigars in the
houses, was all I saw going on in the way of work. The
men, as usual, lolled about in hammocks, Smoking inces- .
Santly. A few houses were in process of building,
or, rather, were standing half finished. Now and then,
a little is done to them ; and so they take months and
years to finish ; and men will show you, with the greatest
complacency, a half-built house on which nothing has
been done for two years, telling you they are so busy
with it that they cannot undertake anything else. There
are no libraries, theatres, nor concert rooms. No public
meetings nor lectures. Newspapers do not circulate
amongst the people, nor books of any kind. I never saw
a native reading, in the central provinces, excepting the
lawyers turning over their law books, or some of the
functionaries in the towns looking up the government
gazette, or children at their lessons. Night sets in at
six o'clock. A single dim dip candle is then lighted, in
the better houses, set up high, so as to shed a weak,
flickering light over the whole room, sufficient to read
Ch. XIII.] DIFFERENCE OF CLIMATE. 235
by. The natives sit about and gossip till between eight
and nine, then lie down to sleep.
A single billiard-table, in a dimly-lighted room, at
which three or four play all the evening, until the
closing hour, at nine, and a dozen others sit round the
walls on benches; a gambling room, licensed by the
government, where only the smallest sums are staked ;
cock-fighting on Sundays; a feast day, and perhaps a
bull-fight once or twice a year; private gambling carried
on to a considerable extent by the higher classes, and
aguardiente-drinking by the lower, complete the list of
Nicaraguan diversions. -
On entering the Matagalpa district, we had found the
roads dry and dusty ; and we now learnt that whilst
at Santo Domingo the season had been unusually wet,
near Matagalpa it had been so dry that the maize crops
were suffering greatly from the drought. We had been
travelling nearly north-west, and were getting gradually
further and further away from the Atlantic; into a region
where the north-east trade wind, having to travel over a
greater stretch of land, gets drained of its moisture.
Our mules and horse were completely tired out; and
we expected to have been able, without difficulty, to hire
fresh animals to take us on to Ocotal in Segovia; but
we were disappointed. We lost the afternoon by de-
pending upon a man who undertook to get us some. He
went away, saying he was going after them. Hour after
hour passed, and he did not return. We went to his
house; and his wife told us that he was getting the
mules for us. Night set in, and still he came not. At
last, about nine o’clock, we found him at the billiard-
room. He said he thought, when he did not return, we
236 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
would take it for granted that he had not been able to
find the mules. I believe he had never been further
than the billiard-saloon looking for them. These people
get through the days with such ennui and difficulty, that
they have no idea of people economising time. A story
is told about them which, whether true or not, illustrates
this. When the steamboats were first put on the Lake
of Nicaragua, the natives complained that they were
charged as much as they were in the bungoes, although
they got sometimes a week’s sailing in the latter, and
only one day in the steamboat. We were in a dilemma
about mules. I wished to push on, as I found the
journey was a longer one than I expected when I set out;
and it was important that I should get back to the mines
by the end of the month. At last, our host offered us
mules to take us as far as Jinotega, charging us three
times as much as was usual; and we determined to go
on there, and seek animals to continue our journey. We
got our own mules put into a good portrero of Pará
grass just below the town, resisting our host’s invitation
to leave them with him, fearing he might use them
instead of feeding them. He had to send out to his
hacienda for the fresh ones; and although he promised
them at Seven, it was ten o'clock the next day before they
arrived; but the delay in waiting for them quickened
my appreciation of the laziness and want of punctuality
of the people of Matagalpa. On leaving the town, we
crossed the river, and ascended a range on the other
side. Here, for the first time, I got amongst pine trees
in the tropics; and they gave a very different aspect to
the country from what I had before seen. No brushwood
grows under them, and they stand apart at regular inter-
Ch. XIII.] PINE FOREST.S. 237
vals, not shouldering each other, as in the Atlantic forest,
where the trees crowd together, each trying to overtop
its neighbour. No lianas hang from the trees, and, ex-
cepting a few narrow-leaved Tillandsias, no epiphytes
nestle on the branches and trunks. Below, instead of
shrubby palms, large-leaved heliconias, and curious
melastomae, the ground was bare and brown from the
fallen leaves of the pines, excepting that in some places
light grass had sprung up ; in others the common bracken
fern of Europe. All that I thought characteristic of a
tropical forest had disappeared; and the whistling of the
wind through the pine-tops, which I had not heard for
years, carried me back in imagination amongst the
Canadian pine-forests. The road was rocky; and to the
left rose mountains of nearly bare cliffs, up which clung
straggling pines, reaching to the Summits, relieving, but
not concealing, their nakedness. Clumps of evergreen
oaks were the only other trees; and these, like the
pines, grew in Social groups on the hills. In the valleys,
the Oaks and pines gave place to a variety of trees and
brushwood, different species of acacia being the most
abundant. Occasionally a tree-cactus appeared, its
curious flattened, kite-shaped joints, covered with
prickles, looking like great leaves, and its stem, formed of
the same, thickened at the bottom into a round filiform
trunk, not differing much from the trees around, but in
the branches showing all the gradations by which the
flat constricted joints thicken out into stems. In some
parts, as we travelled on, we found the oak trees and
many of the pines completely draped with hanging fes-
toons of the grey moss-like Tillandsia usneoides, or “old
man's beard.” Not a bough but had a great fringe
238 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
hanging down, sometimes as much as six feet long, like
a grey veil swaying in the breeze, and giving the trees a
strange and venerable look. The ride was delightful
after the stagnation at Matagalpa: everything was fresh
and new to me. The aspect of the country, the trees,
shrubs, and flowers, the birds and insects, the aromatic
perfume from the pines, claimed my attention every
minute.
After four hours’ riding across the pine-clad ranges,
we reached a gorge leading up to the heights overlooking
the valley of Jinotega. The path was along the steep
side of this gorge, often along the side of a precipice,
where a few logs were laid to prevent the mules going
over, but really increasing the danger, for they were old
and rotten. Large boulders, imbedded in dark-coloured
earth, lay on the steep slopes, and about these grew small
herbaceous ferns in the greatest variety and profusion—a
very paradise for a fern-collector. In some parts a
light green maiden-hair fern covered the ground with its
beautifully tender foliage, reminding me of shady banks
in the north of England, covered with the equally lovely
oak-fern. Every few yards discovered some new species,
filling the mind with delight at their beauty and variety.
In dryer and more stony places, a pinnatifid club-moss
stood up amongst the stones in crisp tufts, like the
parsley fern on mountain-sides at home. A black and
blue bird (Cyanocitta melanocyanea), about the size of a
jackdaw, flew in Small noisy flocks; and I noticed a
beautiful trogon, with burnished green back, and rose-
coloured breast. The highest points of the ranges enclos-
ing this ravine were covered with pine trees (Pinus
tenuifolia); lower down grew evergreen Oaks, and lower
Ch. XIII.] NATIVE PLOUGH. 239
still a variety of small trees, shrubs, and herbaceous
plants, reaching to the dry bed of the brook.
After a steep and rocky ascent, we reached the top of
the range; and before us lay the apex end of the valley
of Jinotega. Here it was very narrow, hemmed in by
rocky ranges capped with pine forests. Descending the
steep and rocky slope, we soon left the pines and oaks
above us, and came down on a narrow alluvial flat,
gradually widening out as we proceeded down the valley.
On each side of the road were fields of maize, suffering
greatly from the drought. The soil was a fine deep, dark
loam ; and for the first time in Nicaragua I found they
NATIVE PLOUGH.
ploughed their land, and made permanent fences. The
plough was a primitive implement, not unlike some of
those still in use in parts of Spain. It was entirely of
wood, excepting that the point was shod with an iron
plate. Many of the fences were hedges, amongst which
grew the lovely creeper (Antigonon leptopus), with fes-
toons of pink and rose-coloured flowers. The Indian
and Mestizo girls bind it in their hair, and call it, “la
vegessima,” “the beautiful.” It does not wither for
Some time after being cut, and so is very suitable for

240 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
garlands and bouquets. It has been carried to Greytown
and the West Indies; and wherever, it flourishes, it is
a great favourite.
About a mile down the valley we reached the Small
town of Jinotega, and put up at the estanco kept by a
very polite and dignified elderly gentleman, who, in the
customary phrase of the country, placed himself, his
house, and all he possessed, at our service. His wife,
a bustling young woman, not more than half the age of
her husband, set to work at once to get our dinner ready.
There were several women-servants and many children
about the house It was kept cleaner than is usual in
Nicaragua, and I noticed in the yard behind that some
attempt at drainage had been made. Our host appeared
to be in comfortable circumstances—outside the town he
had a small farm where he grew maize and wheat. He
complained greatly of the drought, and said it had never
occurred before in his recollection that the maize had
failed in Jinotega for want of rain. He found us a man
who promised to supply us with mules or horses to take
us to Ocotal, but as they had to be brought up from the
“Campos” or plains he could not let us have them early,
and it was ten o’clock the next day before we started
again.
Whilst waiting for the mules we strolled around the
town. In the centre most of the houses are substantially
built and tiled; on the outskirts they are small grass-
thatched huts with high-pitched roofs. Wheat, maize,
potatoes, and beans are the principal things grown.
Many of the people have light Sandy coloured hair and
blue eyes, and I thought at first they might be the
offspring of a number of Americans that settled in Jino-
Ch. XIII.] DESCENDANTS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 241
tega during the civil war in the States, but afterwards
abandoned the place. I found, however, some elderly
people with the same distinctive marks of ancestry other
than the Spaniards, Indians, or Negroes, and I am in-
clined to believe that on the breaking up of the bands of
buccaneers by Morgan, at the end of the seventeenth
century, many of them found a refuge up the Rio Grande
and Rio Wanks. They were well acquainted with these
rivers and made many forays up them to harry the
Spanish settlements on the Pacific slope. In 1688 a
body of about three hundred French and English pirates
abandoned their ships in the Gulf of Fonseca, forced their
Way across the country, and descended the Rio Wanks to
the Atlantic. The fair-haired and blue-eyed natives of
Matagalpa and Segovia are doubtless the descendants of
the outlaws who made these provinces their highways
from one ocean to the other.
Jinotega is pleasantly situated, and has many advan-
tages over other Nicaraguan towns. The climate is
temperate and moderately dry, the land very fertile.
Pine trees on the surrounding ranges furnish fuel and
light. Pasture is abundant; for two miles below the
town the valley opens out into wide “campos” covered
with grass, on which a large number of horses, cattle,
and mules are reared.
Our road lay down the valley. On the sides of the
enclosing ranges there were many cultivated patches, and
we saw whole families, men, women, and children, weed-
ing amongst the maize. A few showers had fallen during
the night and given them some hopes of Saving their
crops. We passed a village called Apanás and then
struck across the plains and on the other side reached
R.
242 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
some low flat-topped ranges covered with small trees and
brushwood, amongst which were many clearings well
fenced and planted with maize. Passing over an un-
dulating country, the hills covered with oak forests, the
lowlands well grassed, we reached about two o'clock San
Rafael, a small town that has used up all its houses in
forming the plaza in front of a barn-like church. As
usual the half-breed population were sunk in idleness and
poverty.
We stopped at one of the houses to get a drink of
“tiste,” and were visited by a fussy little man who told
us that he was secretary to the judge and keeper of the
“estanco,” and in fact the ruling power in the town,
which he placed at our disposal. We, however, wanted
nothing but our “tiste” and to get some information
about a cave we had heard was in the neighbourhood.
Our friend knew all about it and got a boy to show us
the way for a couple of dimes. Under his guidance we
crossed a brook, and passing through a pine forest soon
reached the cave, which was on the side of the precipitous
bank of a small stream. It was only a small one, ex-
tending for about twenty feet back, hollowed out of a
Sandy conglomerate, probably by the action of the brook
when it ran at a higher level. I dug a little into the
floor, but had not time to do much, and found nothing.
There were signs of its having been recently occupied, the
walls and roof being blackened with Smoke, and numerous
shells of the common fresh-water melania were lying
about. We were told that the Indians when travelling
used it, and that during the last revolution the inhabi-
tants of San Rafael hid their valuables in it, though what
they consisted of I am at a loss to say.
Ch. XIII.] BENIGHTED ON THE MOUNTAINS. 243
On leaving the cave our guide put us on the wrong
road, and we did not discover the mistake until we had
travelled a couple of miles. We then arrived at some
huts in the pine forest, where we were told that the road
to Ocotal was half a mile distant, across a stream and a
high steep range opposite. We had either to return to
San Rafael to take the right road or to cross the range.
The latter looked rather formidable, but we determined
to try it. It was very steep and rocky, but amongst the
pines there was no underwood, so, after some stumbling
and slipping, our beasts managed to scramble to the top,
and we soon after regained the road.
We now travelled over steep ranges, composed of
great moraine-like heaps of clay, with large angular
boulders. Pine and oak trees covered the heights,
shrouded with long fringes and festoons of the moss-like
Tillandsia. Many epiphytes grew on the oaks, amongst
which the mottled yellow flower of an orchid hung down
in spikes six feet long. .
Five miles after regaining the road we reached the top
of a high range of hills, and found a single hut on the
summit. Night was coming on, it was raining, and we
were told that there was a very bad road before us over
mountains, and no other house for three leagues. We
determined to stay at the hut, although the prospect of
our night's entertainment was a most cheerless one. The
hut was about twenty feet Square with a small attached
shed for a kitchen. The floor was the natural earth,
littered with corn husks and other refuse. There was not
a bit of furniture, excepting some rough sleeping places
made of hides stretched over poles. There was not a
stool nor even a log of wood to sit down upon. In this
R 2
244 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIII.
miserable hut dwelt three families, consisting of nine in-
dividuals; men, women, and children.
The land around appeared to be poor. A patch of the
forest in front of the house, sloping down the side of a
steep valley, had been cleared, and planted with maize
and wheat. We were told that there were a few other
houses down this valley. The people in the hut seemed
miserably poor. I said to Velasquez that they must
have been born on the settlement, as I could not imagine
anyone coming from outside the mountains to live at such
a spot, and on enquiry we found that every one was a
native born within a mile of the hut. It was perhaps
bleaker than usual that evening, as a continuous rain was
falling, and a high wind whistling through the pine-tops.
Pigs, dogs, and fowls were constantly in one’s way, and
the only cheering sign was the bright blaze and fragrant
smell of the burning pine splinters. I asked one of the
men if he preferred this place to Jinotega, where the
fertile slopes and grassy plains had so pleased our eyes.
He answered he did, the air was fresher and there was
less fever.
They made for us some tortillas, and we had tea with
us. The only ingenious thing about the place was a sort
of stove, dome-shaped, made of clay, with two holes
through the top like a cooking-stove, on which they put
their earthenware cooking vessels. I turned into my
hammock early, with all my clothes and my boots on,
and my coat buttoned tightly round me, as the bleak
wind found many a crevice to whistle through, and the
open network of the hammock, agreeable enough in the
warm lowlands, was too slight a protection against the
cold of the mountains. A few poles placed across the
Ch. XIII.] THE UPLAND INDIANS. 245
doorway partially closed it, but some of the smallest pigs
got through, and were rooting and grunting amongst our
baggage all night.
As soon as daylight broke next morning we were up,
stiff, chilled, and cramped, and got some hot coffee made,
which warmed us a little. We then had a better look
round than we had had the night before. It was a most
desolate spot with scarcely any grass, and a poor half-
starved horse came up to get a small feed of maize.
The people of the mountain regions of Europe cannot,
if they would, take up land in the fertile lowlands, as
they are already occupied; but in the central provinces of
Nicaragua the greater part of the land is unappropriated,
and these people might, if they liked, make their home-
steads where, with one-half the labour they spend on their
barren mountain ridge, they might live in abundance. But
they have been born and bred where they live, and
knowing how strong is the force of custom and how
attached the Indians are to their homes, I do not wonder
that they stay from generation to generation on this
bleak range, so that I can imagine that if removed to the
lowlands they would sigh for their mountain home, to
smell the fragrance of the pine trees, and to hear once
more the wind whistling through their branches. I have
already noticed how the Indians cling generation after
generation to the same spot, even when a short removal
would be manifestly to their advantage. I fear there is
a more ignoble reason that has as much to do with this
as their love of home, their confirmed and innate laziness.
They shrink from any labonr that they are not forced to
undertake. As an instance, no one during at least two
generations that the house had been occupied had brought
246 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIII.
in even a log of wood for a seat, and a table would,
I fancy, be beyond their wildest dreams of comfort.
An Avocado tree grew before their door, the only fruit
tree to be seen, and it was nearly destroyed by being
deeply cut into. I asked why they had injured it and
they said they fired at it as a target, and, lead being
scarce, they dug out the bullets with their knives; yet
within thirty paces of their hut there were plenty of pine
trees that would have done equally well as a target, but
then they would have had to walk a few yards from their
door.
How was such a spot first chosen for settlement? All
the names of the places around are Indian, and probably
in the old times when there was continual warfare amongst
the tribes, the remnants of one, conquered and nearly ex-
tirpated, fled to the mountains, and occupied a locality
from necessity and for safety that they would not other-
wise have chosen, so that afterwards when a new genera-
tion arose they looked on the pine-clad hills as their home
and birthright.
CHAPTER XIV.
Great range composed of boulder clay—Daraily—Lost on the savan-
nahs—Jamaily — A deer-hunter’s family—Totagalpa-Walls
covered with cement, and whitewashed—Ocotal—The valley
of Depilto—Hawks and small birds—Depilto–Silver mine—
Geology of the valley—Glacial drift—The glacial period in Cen-
tral America—Evidence that the ice extended to the tropics—
Scarcity of gold in the valley gravels–Difference of the mol-
Tusca. On the east and west coast of the Isthmus of Darien—The
refuge of the tropical American animals and plants during the
glacial period—The lowering of the sea-level—The land-shells
of the West Indian islands—The Malay Archipelago—Easter
Island—Atlantis—Traditions of the Deluge.
BIDDING adieu to our hosts, we mounted our mules
and descended the ridge on which their hut is built.
The range was very steep, and fully 1,200 feet high,
composed entirely of boulder clay. This clay was of a
brown colour, and full of angular and subangular blocks
of stone of all sizes up to nine feet in diameter. The
hill on the slope that we descended was covered with a
forest resembling that around Santo Domingo, though
the trees were not so large; but tree-ferns, palms, lianas,
and broad-leaved Heliconiae and Melastomae were again
abundant. In these forests, I was told, the “Quesal,”
the royal bird of the Aztecs (Trogon resplendens), is
sometimes found.
After descending about 1,000 feet, we issued from the
forest and passed over well-grassed savannahs surrounded
248 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
by high ranges, on the eastern slopes of which were
forests of pine-trees. The ground was entirely composed
of boulder clay, and not until we had travelled about five
miles did we see any rock in situ. This boulder clay had
extended all the way from San Rafael, and ranges of
hills appeared to be composed entirely of it. The angular
and subangular stones that it contained were an irre-
gular mixture of different varieties of trap, conglomerate,
and schistose rocks. In the northern states of America
it would be unhesitatingly ascribed to the action of ice;
but I was at the time unprepared to believe that the
glacial period could have left such memorials of its
existence within the tropics, at not greater elevations
above the sea than 3,000 feet.
Riding on without stopping, we passed through Yales,
a small village of scattered huts, and reached a river
flowing north through a fine alluvial plain almost un-
inhabited. After crossing the river three times, we
turned off to the north-west, and passed over low grassy
ranges with scattered pine-trees, and in the hollows a
few clearings for growing maize, wheat, and beans. At
noon we halted for an hour to let our mules feed on a
small alluvial flat, for they had had nothing to eat the
night before on the bleak mountain summit.
Continuing our journey, we arrived at Daraily, where
was a fine large clearing, with stone walls and a sugar-
mill. The house was about half a mile from the road,
at the foot of a hill covered with scattered pine-trees,
forming a fine background to the scene. The farm was
well cultivated, and kept clean from weeds. Altogether.
the Scene was a most unusual one for the central
provinces of Nicaragua, and reflected great credit on
Ch. XIV.] LOST IN THE HILLS. 249
the proprietor, Don Estevan Espinosa. Had Nicaragua
many such sons they would soon change the face of the
country, and turn many a wilderness into a fruitful
garden.
Passing over a stony range, we descended by a steep
pass into the valley of the Estely, and followed it down
to the westward across low dry hills with prickly bushes
and scrub. About five o’clock we reached an extended
plain covered with prickly trees and shrubs, and pressed
on to reach the village of Palacaguina, where we pro-
posed to pass the night. There were many paths leading
across the plain, and there was no person to be seen to
direct us which to take; whilst the scrubby trees inter-
rupted our view in every direction. Rito had once
before been in the neighbourhood, and thought he knew
the way, so we submitted ourselves to his guidance; but,
as it proved, he took a path which lead us past, instead
of to, the town. Night set in as we were pushing across
dry weed-covered hills, destitute of grass or water, every
minute expecting to meet some one who could tell us
about the road. Rito was still confident that he was right,
although both Velasquez and myself had concluded we
must have got on the wrong road. The only animal we
met with was a black and white skunk, with a young
one following it. The mother ran too fast up a rocky
slope for the young one, which was left behind, and
came towards us. It was very pretty, with its snow-
white bushy tail laid over its black back; but we were
afraid to touch it, fearing that, young as it was, it might
have a supply of the foetid fluid that they discharge
with too sure an aim at any assailant. The skunks
move slowly about, and their large white tails render
250 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
them very conspicuous. Their formidable means of
defence makes for them the obscure colouration of other
dusk-roaming mammals unnecessary, as they do not
need concealment.
Hour after hour passed, and we reached no house,
nor met any one on the road; and at last, about nine
o'clock, we determined to stop at a spot where there was
a little grass, but no water, as the poor jaded mules had
been ridden since daylight, excepting for an hour at
midday. We spread our waterproof sheet from the
branch of a tree, and lay down dinnerless and supperless,
having had nothing but a little sweet bread and native
cheese all day; we were now too thirsty to eat even that.
Hearing some frogs croaking in the distance, Velasquez
went away in the direction from whence the sound came,
hoping to find some water; but there was none, the
frogs being in damp cracks in the ground. About eleven
we heard the noises of men talking; and holloaing to
them, our shouts were returned. We ran across the
plain, through the bushes, and found two Indians, who
were returning from some plantations of maize to their
home, several miles distant. Both were nearly naked,
the youngest having only a loin-cloth on. When talking
to us, they shouted as if we were many yards distant :
and as soon as one began to answer a question, the other
went on repeating, in a higher key, what the first said.
They told us that we had come two leagues past
Balacaguina, and were on the road to a small town
called Pueblo Nuevo, and directed us how we should
find the right track in the morning for continuing our
journey to Ocotal. They were highly amused at our
misadventure, and laughed and talked to each other
Ch. XIV.] RECOWER THE PATH. 251
about it. Rito also laughed much at the mistake he
had made, and though disposed to be angry at his
obstinacy in bringing us several miles out of our course,
we knew that he had done his best. All the native
Servants, when they make a mistake, or do any damage
accidentally, treat it as a joke; and it is best, under such
circumstances, to be good-humoured with them, as, if
reproved, they are very likely to turn sulky, and do
Some more damage. They are very independent, and
care nothing about being discharged, as any one can live
in Nicaragua without working much. Rito was an active,
merry fellow, and might every now and then be observed
laughing to himself; if asked what it was about,
he was sure to answer that he was thinking about
some little accident that had occurred. I once, when
trying to loop up the side of my hammock, fell out of it,
and next day Rito could not control himself, but was
continually exploding in a burst of laughter; and for
days afterwards any allusion to it would set him into
convulsions. When we returned to Santo Domingo, it
was one of his stock stories. He used to say he wanted
very much to come to my assistance, but could not for
laughing.
Next morning we started at daylight, and soon found
the path the Indians had told us about, which took us
to a place called Jamaily (pronounced Hamerlee), where
was an extensive Indigo plantation. About 100 men
were employed weeding and clearing the ground. No
fences are required for Indigo growing, as neither horses
nor cattle will eat the plant. A mile beyond Jamaily
We saw, amongst Some bushes, a poor-looking, grass-
thatched hut, with the sides made of an open work of
252 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
branches and leaves. We went up to it to try to buy
something to eat, but found only three children in it;
the oldest, a very dirty little girl of about five years of
age, with a piece of cloth worn like a shawl, her only
clothing, and the two younger quite naked. A little
boy, about three years old, was very talkative, and
prattled away all the time we were there. He said that
Some people living near had four cows, but that they had
none; that his father shot deer and sold their skins,
and that two days before he fired at a rock, thinking it
was a deer.
We heated Some water and made some tea, and with
Some Sweet bread and native cheese managed to allay
our hunger, the little boy amusing us all the time with
his prattle. Pointing to a mangy dog lying on the floor
covered with some old rags, he said it had fever, and
that at night it threw off the rags, and the fleas got at it,
but that during the day he kept it well covered up. I
was amused with the little fellow, who was as happy, if
not happier, in that squalid hut, without a scrap of
clothing, and fed with the coarsest food, as any child I.
had ever seen. By-and-by an elder girl came along
from some other hut, and told us that the man was
away hunting for deer, and that his wife had gone to her
mother's, about a mile distant. She also informed us
that the hunter had not a gun of his own, but gave half
the meat of the .deer he killed for the loan of one. He
had a trained ox which, as soon as it saw a deer, com-
menced eating, and walking gradually towards it; whilst
the man followed, concealed behind it, and thus got
within distance to shoot it. He generally got two when
he went out, and sold the hides for twenty cents per
Ch. XIV.] GLITTERING CEMENT. 253
pound, the skins averaging five pounds weight each. It is
astonishing that the deer should be so little afraid of
man as they are, after having been objects of chase for
probably thousands of years. Sometimes when one is
encountered in the forest it will stand within twenty
yards stupidly gazing at a man, or perhaps striking the
ground impatiently with its forefoot, and sometimes
waiting long enough for an unloaded gun to be charged.
The woman of the house came in before we left, and we
paid her for the use of her fire. She did not know how
old her children were, and Velasquez told me that very
few of the lower classes in Nicaragua knew either their
own age or that of their children.
The soil about here, for many leagues, was full of
small angular fragments of white quartz. They had
attracted my attention the day before, and I now found
they were derived from thick beds of conglomerate, the
decomposition of which released the fragments of quartz,
of which it was mainly composed. Many of these beds
of conglomerate were inclined at high angles. I noticed
also some contorted, highly-inclined talcose schists, full
of Small quartz veins, generally running between the
laminæ of the schists. Probably the conglomerates had
been produced by the wearing down of these schists.
We passed through two Indian towns—the first
Yalaguina, the second Totagalpa. At the last the
church looked very clean and pretty, and was orna-
mented with a single square tower, built of rough stones,
and covered with white cement that glistened like
marble at a short distance. The peculiar shining ap-
pearance of the cement is due to the admixture of a fine
black Sand in the whitewash used. The cement itself is
254. THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
strong and durable, and its manufacture was known to
the Indians long before the advent of the Spaniards.
Bernal Diaz de Castillo, one of the followers of Cortez,
often speaks, in his history, of the houses built of stone
and lime, and covered with cement. On their march to
Mexico, when they arrived at Cempoal, he says, “Our
advanced guard having gone to the great Square, the
buildings of which had been recently plastered and
whitewashed, in which art these people are very expert,
one of our horsemen was so struck with the splendour of
their appearance in the sun that he came back in full
speed to Cortez to tell him that the walls of the houses
were of silver.” We also learn from the same historian
that the city of Cholula “had at that time above 100
lofty white towers, which were the temples of their
idols.”
Between Yalaguina and Totagalpa there was much of
the conglomerate rock that I have already mentioned.
Over this the soil was dry and stony, and filled with
small quartz pebbles. The vegetation was scanty, prin-
cipally thorny shrubs and trees. Amongst the former
the Pinuela, a plant closely allied to the pine-apple, and
used to make fences, was the most abundant. In the
alluvial flats were many fine patches of maize looking
extremely well, for in Segovia the crops had not been in-
jured by drought. The low hills were very sandy and
dry, and the beds of the brooks waterless, but a little be-
yond Totagalpa we found a small running stream, and
stopped an hour to refresh our mules and to eat some
provisions we had bought at Yalaguina.
All through Segovia the country is divided into town-
ships, embracing an area of from twenty to twenty-five
Ch. XIV.] THE CAPITAL OF SEGOWIA. 255
square leagues. Over each of these there is an alcalde,
living in the small central town, and elected by the in-
habitants of the townships. The boundaries are marked
by heaps of stones surmounted by wooden crosses, set up
on the roads leading from one town to another.
After riding a few more leagues over rocky hills with
scanty vegetation, we came in sight, from the top of one
of the ranges, of the town of Ocotal, the capital of
Segovia, with its white walls and red-tiled roofs. De-
rcending a long rocky slope we forded one of the affluents
of the Rio Wanks, and half a mile further arrived at
the town, situated on a low dry plain. A heavy thunder-
storm broke over us as we entered the town, and the rain
came down in torrents whilst we were searching for a
house to put up at. In answer to our enquiries we were
directed to the best house in the town. It was situated
at the corner of the plaza, had lofty well-built walls,
large doors and gateway, clean tiled floors, and in the
courtyard behind a pretty flower garden, with a tank to
hold rain water. We were received by two elderly
ladies, the sisters of the owner Don Pedro, who made us
welcome in a stately sort of way, and got some dinner
prepared, consisting of beans, tortillas, avocados, and
coffee.
We learnt that the present town was about seventy
years old and not very flourishing, as the land around
was dry and sterile. The old capital of Segovia was
situated five leagues further down the river, where the
land around was fertile. But the buccaneers came up
the river in their boats and sacked the town, and the site
was deserted for one more difficult of access, the river
being much shallower and obstructed by rapids higher
256 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
up. At the site of the old town the church still stands,
but only a few poor negroes live there now. Two
branches of the river unite a little below the present
town, and following it down for about four days’ journey
a place named Cocos is reached, which is the furthest
settlement of the Spaniards towards the Atlantic. To
this point large bungoes come up the river, and Don
Pedro had been very wishful to get it opened out above
for navigation, but had not succeeded.
There were very few men to be hired at Ocotal, and
we determined to go on to Depilto, a small mining town
near the Honduranean boundary, where we were assured
there were plenty to be obtained. We had only engaged
the mules to come as far as Ocotal, and had great diffi-
culty in getting others to go on. I think the people at
first were afraid that we might cross the boundary into
Honduras, and never return. We afterwards learnt that
robberies of mules often take place; some rogues making
a business of stealing mules out of Honduras, bringing
them into Nicaragua, selling them, and stealing others to
return with. There were, however, several people in
Ocotal who had worked at the mines and knew us, and
when this information spread we had the offer of several
animals. If we had known the cause of the reluctance
of the people to let us have mules at first, we should
easily have got over the difficulty by leaving the value of
the animals in the hands of some responsible person, but
the owners had made all sorts of excuses for not lending
them, and we had not suspected the true cause. We had
been travelling continually for nine days, and looked more
like brigands than honest travellers, and the good easy-
going people of Ocotal had their suspicions about us.
Ch. XVI.] ABUNDANCE OF HAWKS. 257
As I have said, when satisfied of our good faith, the
mule owners soon offered us the use of their beasts, and
next morning Velasquez and I started at seven o’clock
on two fine fresh mules and rode merrily up the valley
of the Depilto. The river rises in the high ranges that
form the boundary between Honduras and Nicaragua, and
running down past Depilto joins the Ocotal river a little
below the capital. Our road lay up the valley close to
the river, which we crossed and recrossed several times.
The vegetation was scanty, but the morning was a lovely
one after the thunderstorm of the night before, and we
greatly enjoyed our ride. We did not see many birds, a
pretty hawk that I shot being the most noticeable.
Hawks of various kinds are very abundant in the tropics,
and if the small birds had to personify death, they would
certainly represent him as a hawk, for this is the form in
which he must generally appear to them. Towards eve-
ning the hawk glides noiselessly along and alights on a
bough near, where he hears the small birds twittering
amongst the bushes. Perhaps they see him and are
quiet for a little, but he sits motionless as the sphinx,
and they soon get over their fear and resume their play
or feeding. Then suddenly a dark mass Swoops down
and rises again. It is the hawk, with a small bird grasped
in his strong talons gasping out its last breath. Its
comrades are terror-struck for a moment and dash madly
into the thickets, but soon forget their fear. They chirp
to each other, the scattered birds reunite; there is a
fluttering and twittering, a rearranging of mates, then
again songs, feeding, love, jealousy, and bickerings.
The banks of the river were Sandy and sterile, and the
soil contained much small quartz. The bed rock was a
S
258 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
talcose schist near to Ocotal, but higher up the river it
changed to gneissoid and quartz rocks, the latter in hard
and massive beds. As we ascended the valley, the ranges
bounding it got higher and steeper, the soil more sandy
and barren, with scattered pine trees growing amongst
the rocks. Great, bare, rounded masses of hard quartzite
protruded through the scanty soil, and in the river were
enormous boulders of granite-like gneiss.
Depilto is only nine miles from Ocotal, but we took
three hours to reach it, as I made many stoppages to
examine the rocks and to catch fleet-limbed speckled
tiger-beetles on the sandy roads. The little town was
not half populated, the silver mines had been closed for
Some time, most of the houses were empty and the people
still clinging about the place seemed to have nothing to
do, for the land is too barren for cultivation. We made
known our requirements for labourers, and were assured
that plenty would be glad to go to Santo Domingo.
They would not, however, bind themselves there, but pre-
ferred to go down untrammelled with any conditions
about pay or work, and I may anticipate here by saying
that the result of our visit was very satisfactory, numbers
of workmen having been obtained for the mines.
After getting some breakfast at a house that seemed to
be the hotel of Depilto, we set out to visit a silver mine
named “El Coquimba.” We had to ascend a high
range opposite the town, and found riding over the steep
bare exposures of quartz rock so difficult and dangerous
that about half way up we tied our mules to some young
pine trees and proceeded on foot. The mine was aban-
doned, and the shafts and levels were closed by falls
of rock. Some of the ore, Sulphide of silver, was lying
Ch. XIV.] THE LAURENTIAN FORMATION. 259
at the mouth of one of the old shafts. Our guide told us
that the lode was two feet wide. Both it and the con-
taining rock was very hard, and the miners had also water
to contend against. I do not think from what I saw that
the mine could be made to pay on a large scale, though
next the surface small remunerative deposits of ore had
been found. In depth the hardness of the rocks would
make the sinking of shafts and driving of levels, the
“dead work” of the miners, very costly. 42
We started on our return down the valley at three
o'clock, and took particular note of the succession of the
rocks, as I had become much interested in finding
these quartz and gneissoid beds, which I had no doubt
were the same Laurentian rocks that I had seen in
Canada and Brazil, the very backbone of the continent,
ribbing America from Patagonia to the Canadas—the
fundamental gneiss which is covered in other parts
of Central America that I had visited, by strata of much
more recent origin. Going down the valley of the
Depilto the massive beds of quartz and gneiss are soon
Succeeded by overlying, highly inclined, and contorted
schists, and as far as where the road from Ocotal to
Totagalpa crosses the river, the exposures of bed rock
were invariably these contorted schists, with many small
veins of quartz running between the laminae of the rock.
On the banks of the river, from about a mile below
Depilto, unstratified beds of gravel are exposed in nu-
merous natural sections. These beds deepen as the
river is descended, until at Ocotal they reach a thickness
of between two and three hundred feet, and the undu-
lating plain on which Ocotal is built is seen in sections
near the river to be composed entirely of them. These
S 2
266 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
unstratified deposits consist hostly of quartz sand with
numerous angular and Subangular blocks of quartz and
talcose schist. Many of the boulders are very large, and
in some parts great numbers have been accumulated in
the bed of the river by the washing away of the smaller
stones and sand. Some of these huge boulders were
fifteen feet across, the largest of them lying in the bed of
the river two miles below Depilto. Most of them were
of the Depilto quartz rock and gneiss, and I saw many in
the unstratified gravel near Ocotal fully eight miles from
their parent rock. Near Ocotal this unstratified forma-
tion is nearly level, excepting where worn into deep
gulches by the existing streams. The river has cut
through to a depth of over two hundred feet, and there
are long precipices of it on both sides, similar to those
near streams in the north of England that cut through
thick beds of boulder clay.
The evidences of glacial action between Depilto and
Ocotal were, with one exception, as clear as in any
Welsh or Highland valley. There were the same
rounded and smoothed masses of rock, the same moraine-
like accumulations of unstratified sand and gravel, the
same transported boulders that could be traced to their
parent rocks several miles distant. The single excep-
tion was, I am convinced, one of observation and not one
of fact, viz., I saw no glacial Scratches on the rocks; but
geologists know how rare these are on natural exposures
in districts that have certainly been glaciated, and will
not be surprised that in a hurried visit of only a few
hours I should not have discovered any. Glacial scratches
are seldom preserved on rock surfaces exposed to the
action of the elements. Even in Nova Scotia, where
Geotal
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SECTION OF STRATA
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between Depilto and the hill three miles South-west of Ocotal.
Gravel with boulders of trap
and conglomerate.
Contorted schists.
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262 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
scratches and grooves are met with wherever the rock
surface has been recently laid bare, I do not remember
having ever seen any on natural exposures. It is only
where protected by a covering of clay or gravel from the
action of the elements, that they have been preserved
through the ages that have passed since the glacial epoch,
and as I did not see any rock surfaces near Depilto that
had been recently bared, it is not surprising that, not-
withstanding the other proofs of glacial action, I should
not have seen any ice scratches or grooves.
I could no longer withstand the evidence that had
been gradually accumulating of the presence of large
glaciers in Central America during the glacial period, and
these once admitted afforded me a solution of many phe-
nomena that had before been inexplicable. The immense
ridges of boulder clay between San Rafael and Yales, the
long hog-backed hills near Tablason, the great trans-
ported boulders two leagues beyond Libertad on the
Juigalpa road, and the scarcity of alluvial gold in the
valleys of Santo Domingo, could all be easily explained
on the supposition that the ice of the glacial period was
not confined to extra-tropical lands, but in Central Ame-
"rica covered all the higher ranges, and descended in
great glaciers to at least as low as the line of country
now standing at two thousand feet above the Sea, and
probably much lower.
In my description of the mines of Santo Domingo I
have only briefly alluded to the scarcity of alluvial gold
in the valleys. It may be correlated with a similar
scarcity in the glaciated valleys of Nova Scotia and
North Wales in the neighbourhood of auriferous quartz
veins, and is probably due to the same cause. Glacier
Ch. XIV.] THE LAND HAS NOT SUBSIDED. 263
ice Scoops out all the contents of the valleys, and in
deepening them does not sort the materials like running
water or the action of the waves upon the sea coast. I
have in another place* shown that in Nova Scotia, in the
neighbourhood of rich auriferous quartz veins that have
been greatly denuded, grain gold is only sparingly dis-
seminated throughout the drifts of the valleys, whilst in
Australia every auriferous quartz vein has been the
source of an alluvial deposit of grain gold, produced by
the denudation and sorting action of running water.
When the denuding agent was water the rocks were
worn away and the heavier gold left behind at the
bottom of the alluvial deposits; but when the denuding
agent was glacier ice the stony masses and their metallic
contents were carried away, or mingled together in the
unassorted moraines.
That the transportation of boulders in Nicaragua was
due to glaciers, and not to floating icebergs, may be
argued on Zoological grounds. The transported boulders,
near Ocotal, are about three thousand feet above the sea,
those near Libertad about two thousand feet. The low
pass between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, through
the valley of the San Juan and the Lake of Nicaragua,
is less than two hundred feet above the sea, and to
allow for the flotation of icebergs at the lower of the two
places named, a channel of more than eighteen hundred
feet in depth would have connected the two oceans.
This supposition is negatived by the fact that the mol-
* “The Glacial Period in North America,” by Thos. Belt. Pub-
lished in Trans. Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, 1866,
p.93.
+ See ante, p. 35.
264 - THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
lusca on the two coasts, separated by the narrow Isthmus
of Darien, are almost entirely distinct, whilst we know
that since the glacial period there has been little change
in the molluscan fauna, nearly, if not all, the shells
found in glacial deposits still existing in neighbouring
seas. In the Caribbean province, which includes the
Gulf of Mexico, the West Indian islands, and the
eastern coast of South America as far as Rio de Janeiro,
the number of marine shells is estimated by Professor
C. B. Adams at not less than 1500 species. From the
Banamic province, which, on the western coast of
America, extends from the Gulf of California to Payta
in Peru, there has been catalogued 1341 distinct
species of marine molluscs. Out of this immense
number of species, less than fifty occur on both sides of
the narrow Isthmus of Darien. So remarkably distinct
are the two marine faunas, that most Zoologists consider
that there has been no communication in the tropics
between the two seas since the close of the miocene
period, whilst the connection that is supposed to have
existed at that remote epoch, and to account for the
distribution of corals, whilst advocated by Professor
Duncan and other eminent men, is disputed by others
equally eminent. No Zoologist of note believes that
there has been a submergence of the land lying between
the Pacific and the Atlantic since the pliocene period,
and icebergs would not have floated without such sub-
mergence, so that, in the cases I have mentioned, he
boulders, if ice-borne, have been carried by glaciers and
not by floating ice. :
Whilst I thus found evidences of the ice of the
glacial period reaching in the northern hemisphere jo
Ch. XIV.] THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 265
within the tropics, in the southern hemisphere Professor
Hartt has found glacial drift extending from Patagonia,
all through Drazil to Pernambuco, and Agassiz has even
announced the discovery of glacial moraines up to the
equator. I have myself seen, near Pernambuco, and in
the province of Maranham, in Brazil, a great drift
deposit that I believe to be of glacial origin; and I
think it highly probable that the evidence that is accu-
mulating will force geologists to the conclusion that the
ice of the glacial period was not only more extensive
than has been generally supposed, but that it existed at
the same time in the northern and southern hemi-
spheres, leaving, at least, on the American continent,
only the lower lands of the tropics free from the icy
covering.
I shall not enter upon the question of the cause of the
cold of the glacial period. It is probably closely con-
nected with the cause of an exactly opposite state of
things, the heat of the miocene period, when the beech,
the hazel, and the plane, lived and flourished in Spitz-
bergen, as far north as latitude 78°, and, according to
Heer, firs and poplars reached to the North Pole, if
there was then land there for them to grow upon. I
consider that the great extension of the ice in the
glacial period supports the conclusion of Professor
Heer, founded on the northern extension of the miocene
flora, that these enormous changes of climate cannot be
explained by any rearrangement of the relative positions
of land and water, and that “we are face to face with a
problem whose solution must be attempted and doubtless
completed by the astronomer.”
There is another branch of the subject that I can-
266 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
not so easily leave. It is the answer to the question,
What became of the many peculiar tropical American
genera of animals and plants, when a great part of the
tropics was covered with ice, and the climate of the
lower lands must have been much colder than now. For
instance, the Heliconii and Morphos are a group of
butterflies peculiar to tropical America, containing many
distinct genera which, on any theory of descent from a
common progenitor, must have originated ages before the
glacial period. How is it that such peculiar tropical
groups were not exterminated by the cold of the glacial
period, or if able to stand the cold that they did not
spread into temperate regions on the retreat of the ice P
I believe the answer is that there was much extermina-
tion during the glacial period, that many species and
Some genera, as for instance, the American horse, did not
survive it, and that some of the great gaps that now
exist in natural history were then made, but that a
refuge was found for many species on lands now below
the ocean, that were uncovered by the lowering of the sea
caused by the immense quantity of water that was locked
up in frozen masses on the land.
Mr. Alfred Tylor considers that the ice cap of the
glacial period was the cause of a great reduction of the
level of the sea amounting to at least 600 feet.* But if
we admit that the ice cap existed in both hemispheres at
the same time, and extended nearly to the equator, we
shall have to speculate on a lowering of the level of the
sea to at least 1000 feet. We have many facts tending to
prove that during the extreme extent of the glacial
* “Geological Magazine,” vol. ix. p. 392.
Ch. XIV.] I, OWERING OF THE SEA-LEVEL. 267
period the land stood much higher above the sea than
it now does. Professor Hartt believes that during the
time of the drift, Brazil stood at a much higher level
than at present, and we can, on the supposition of a
general lowering of the sea all over the world, account
for the distribution of animal life over islands now sepa-
rated by shallow seas. Thus Mr. Bland, in a paper read
before the American Philosophical Society, on “The
Geology and Physical Geography of the West Indies,
with reference to the distribution of Mollusca,” states
his opinion that Porto Rico, the Virgins, the Anguilla
group, Cuba, the I3ahamas, and Hayti, once formed con-
tinuous dry land that obtained its land molluscs from
Central America and Mexico. The land molluscs of the
islands to the south, on the contrary, from Barbuda and
St. Kitt's down to Trinidad, is of two types, one Vene.
Zuelan, the other Guianian ; the western side of the
supposed continuous land, namely, Trinidad, Tobago,
Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia,
belonging to the first type ; the eastern side, from Bar-
bados to Antigua, to the second.
Commenting on Mr. Bland's valuable communication,
Mr. Kingsley justly says: “If this be so, a glance at the
map will show the vast destruction of tropic land during
almost the very latest geological epoch; and show, too,
how little, in the present imperfect state of our knowledge,
we ought to dare any speculations as to the absence of
man, as well as of other creatures, on those great lands
destroyed. For, to supply the dry land which Mr.
Bland's theory needs, we shall have to conceive a junc-
* Quoted in “At Last,” by Charles Kingsley, p. 305. “Geology
and Physical Geography of Brazil,” by Ch. Fred. Hartt, p. 573.
268 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
tion, reaching over at least five degrees of latitude,
between the north of British Guiana and Barbados;
and may freely indulge in the dream that the waters of
the Orinoco, when they ran over the lowlands of Trini-
dad, passed east of Tobago, then northward between
Barbados and St. Lucia, afterwards turning westward
between the latter island and Martinique, and that the
mighty estuary—for a great part at least of that line—
formed the original barrier which kept the land shells of
Venezuela apart from those of Guiana.”
A very similar theory has been propounded by Mr.
Wallace to account for the distribution of the faunas of
the Malay Archipelago in his admirable work on the
natural history of that region.f Java, Sumatra, and
Borneo are separated from each other, and from the
continent of Asia, by a shallow sea less than six hundred
feet in depth, and must at one time have been connected
by continuous land to allow of the elephant and tapir of
Sumatra and Borneo, the rhinoceros of Sumatra and
Java, and the wild cattle of Borneo and Java, to spread
from the continent to these now sea-surrounded lands, as
none of these large animals could have passed over the
arms of the sea that now separate them. The smaller
mammals, the birds, and insects, all illustrate this view,
almost all the genera found in any of the islands oc-
curring also on the Asiatic continent, and the species
being often identical. On the other hand, the fauna of
islands to the eastward are more closely connected with
Australia, and must at one time have been joined to it by
nearly continuous land. Honeysuckers and lories take
* Loc. cit., p. 306.
f “The Malay Archipelago,” vol. i. p. 11,
Ch. XIV.] FORMER WIDE EXTENSION OF LAND. 269
the place of the woodpeckers, barbets, trogons, and fruit
thrushes of the western islands, and the many mammals
belonging to Asiatic genera are no more seen.
Mr. Wallace ascribes the present isolation of the is-
lands, and their separation from the adjoining continents,
to the submergence of the channels between them caused
by the abstraction of matter thrown out by the numerous
volcanoes; but looking at the fact that at the time when
these islands were probably connected with the continents
of Asia on the one side and Australasia on the other,
namely, at the close of the pliocene period, England was
connected with the adjoining continents, Malta, as shown
by its fossil elephants, with Africa, the West Indies with
Yucatan and Venezuela, it seems to me more probable
that the cause was not a local one, but a general lowering
of the waters of the ocean all over the world to at least
one thousand feet,_produced by the prodigious quantity
of water locked up in the frozen masses that covered a
great part of both hemispheres.
The wide diffusion of the Malayan dialects over the
Pacific, reaching as far as the Sandwich Islands, shows
the great extension of that race in former times. On
numerous islands in Polynesia there are cyclopean ruins
utterly out of keeping with their present size and popu-
lation. Who can look at the pictures of little Easter
Island, with its gigantic images standing up in unwor-
shipped solitude, without feeling that that insignificant
islet could never have supported the race that reared the
monuments. But if that and other islands were once
hills overlooking peopled lowlands, the sense of incon-
gruity vanishes. We see the images, not gazing
gloomily over the ocean that narrowly circles them
270 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
in, but proudly looking across wide plains peopled by
their worshippers, who from their villages and fields
behold the gods they adore, and implore their protec-
tion and support.
Was the fabled Atlantis really a myth, or was it not
that great continent in the Atlantic laid bare by the
lowering of the ocean, on which the present West Indian
islands were mountains, rising high above the level and
fertile plains which are now covered by the sea. Ob-
scurely the accounts of it have come down to us from the
dim past, but there is a remarkable coincidence between
the traditions that have been handed down on the two
sides of the Atlantic.
In a fragment of the works of Theopompus, who lived
in the fourth century before the Christian era, he gives
an account of a conversation between Silenus and Midas,
the king of Phrygia, in which the former tells the king
that Europe, Asia, and Africa were surrounded by the
sea, but that beyond them was an island of immense size,
in which were many great cities, and nations with laws
and customs very different from theirs. Plato, in his
“Timaeus and Critias,” relates that Solon was told by a
priest of Sais, from the sacred inscription in the temple,
how Solon's country “Once opposed a power which with
great arrogance pushed its way into Europe and Asia
from the Atlantic ocean.” “Beyond the entrance which
you call the Pillars of Hercules there was an island
larger than Libya and Asia together. From it naviga-
tion passed to the other islands, and from them to the
opposite continent which surrounded that ocean. On
this great Atlantic island there was a powerful and
Ch. XIV.] THE FAIBLED ATLANTIS. 271
singular kingdom, whose dominion extended not only
over the whole island, but over many others, and parts of
the continent. It ruled also over Libya as far as Egypt,
and over Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This kingdom
with the whole of its forces united tried to subjugate in
One campaign your country and ours, and all the country
within the strait.” “At that time, O Solon, your nation
shone out from all others by bravery and power. It was
placed in great danger, but it defeated the attacking
army, and erected triumphal monuments. But when at
a later period earthquakes and great floods took place, the
whole of your united army was swallowed up during one
evil day and one evil night, and at the same time the
island of Atlantis sank into the Sea.” Crantor, quoted
by Proclus, corroborates the account by Plato, and says
that he found this same story retained by the priests of
Sais, three hundred years after the period of Solon, and
that he was shown the inscriptions on which it was re-
corded. :
Turning to the western side of the Atlantic, we find
in the Teo Amoxtli, as translated by the Abbé Brasseur
de Bourbourg, an account of the overwhelming of a
country by the Sea, when thunder and flames came out
of it, and “ the mountains were sinking and rising.”
Everywhere throughout America there are traditions of
a great catastrophe, in which a whole country was sub-
merged, and only a few people escaped to the mountains;
and the Spanish conquerors relate with wonder the
accounts they found amongst the Indians of a universal
deluge. Amongst the modern Indians the traveller,
Catlin, relates that in one hundred and twenty different
tribes that he had visited in North, and South, and
272 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
Central America, “every tribe related, more or less
distinctly, their tradition of the deluge, in which one, or
three, or eight persons were saved above the waters on
the top of a high mountain.”
If Atlantis were low lands connecting the West Indian
islands with America, the other islands mentioned by
IPlato may have been the Azores, also greatly increased
in extent by the lowering of the ocean ; and the over-
whelming of this low land, on the melting of the ice at
the close of the glacial period, may be that great catas-
trophe that is recorded on both sides of the Atlantic,
but is more clearly remembered in the traditions of
America, because all the high lands there had been
covered with ice, and the inhabitants were restricted to
those that were overwhelmed by the deluge.
I approached this subject from the side of Natural
History. I was driven to look for a refuge for the
animals and plants of tropical America during the
glacial period, when I found proofs that the land they
now occupy was at that time either covered with ice or
too cold for genera that can now only live where frost is
unknown. I had arrived at the conclusion that they
must have inhabited low lands now submerged, and
following up the question, I soon saw that the very
accumulation of ice that made their abode impossible
provided another for them by the lowering of the sea.
Then pursuing the subject still further, I saw that all
over the world Curious questions concerning the distri-
bution of races of mankind, of animals, and of plants,
were rendered more easy of solution on the theory that
* “Iifted and Subsided Rocks in America,” by G. Catlin, p. 182.
Ch. XIV.] THE SEA DRAINED BY GLACIAL ICE. 273
land was more continuous once than now ; that islands
now separated were then joined together, and to adjacent
continents; and that what are now banks and shoals
beneath the sea were then peopled lowlands.
I have said that the sea during the glacial period, if,
as I believe, it was contemporaneous in the two hemi-
spheres, must have stood at least 1,000 feet lower than
it now does. It may have been much lower than this,
but I prefer to err on the safe side. When geologists
have mapped out the limits of ancient glacier and con-
tinental ice all over the world, it will be possible to
calculate the minimum amount of water that was ab-
stracted from the sea; and if by that time hydrographers
have shown on their charts the shoals and submerged
banks that would be laid dry, fabled Atlantis will rise
before our eyes between Europe and America, and in
the Pacific the Malay Archipelago will give place to the
Malay Continent. Here is a noble inquiry, an un-
explored region of research, at the entrance of which I
can only stand and point the way for abler and stronger
minds; an inquiry that will lead to the knowledge of
the lands where dwelt the peoples of the glacial period
who lived before the flood.
Wague and visionary as these speculations must ap-
pear to many, to others who are acquainted with the
enormous glaciation to which America has been subjected
they will appear based on substantial truths. The im-
mense accumulation of ice over both poles, reaching far
down over the temperate Zones, in some meridians
encroaching on the tropics, and in Equatorial America .
all the land lying at the least above 2,000 feet above
the level of the sea also supporting great glaciers,
T
274 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIV.
must have greatly drained the sea; lands now sub-
merged must have been uncovered, and on the return of
the waters at the close of the glacial period many a
peopled lowland must have been overwhelmed in the
nearly universal deluge.
CHAPTER XV.
A Nicaraguan criminal—Geology between Ocotal and Totagalpa-
Preparations at Totagalpa for their annual festival—Chicha-
drinking—Piety of the Indians—Ancient civilisation of tropical
America—Palacaguina—Hospitality of the Mestizos–Curious
Custom at the festival at Condego—Cross range between Segovia.
and Matagalpa-Sontuli— Birds’ nests.
WE got back to Ocotal, on our return from Depilto,
before dark, and made arrangements for setting out on
our return to the mines the next morning. Whilst
sitting under the corridor, looking across the pretty
flower-garden at the glowing western sky, illumined by
the last rays of the setting sun, a poor fettered criminal,
holding up by means of a string the thick chain that
bound together his ankles, came limping along, with a
soldier behind him armed with gun and bayonet. He
had been brought out of prison to beg. In most of the
towns of Nicaragua no food is given to the prisoners,
whether convicted, or merely charged with crime.
Those that have no money to buy food are sent out
every day with an armed escort to beg. The prisoner
that hobbled up to me was under twenty years of age,
and had been convicted of murder and condemned to
death. He had appealed against the sentence to a
higher court, but I was told that there was scarcely any
T 2
276 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
chance of a decision in his favour, and that he would
probably be shot in a day or two. Notwithstanding his
critical position, he was lively and cheerful; when I
gave him a small piece of silver was as overjoyed as if
he had got news of his reprieve, and went jumping
away, his clanking fetters making ghastly music, glee-
fully showing to his guard the coin that would probably
procure him food the few days he had to live. His
wretched appearance, impending fate, and shocking
levity, had chased away the peaceful feelings with which
I had watched the quiet Sunset; but as he hobbled away,
night, like a pall, fell over the scene, the trembling stars
peeped out from the vault of heaven, and soon a million
distant orbs proclaimed that the world was but a grain
of dust in the vast universe, that the things of earth
were but for a moment, and, as a shadow, would pass
away.
Next morning, when we wished to settle up with our
kind entertainers, they absolutely refused to accept any
payment. We had been recommended to the house,
and told that we could pay for what we got ; but we
now learnt that no one was ever refused entertainment,
and that no charge was made. We were total strangers,
nor should I have any opportunity of returning their
hospitality, as I had determined shortly to return to
Europe; but all I could prevail upon them to accept
was a present to a little girl that lived with the ladies,
and of whom they were very fond, calling her “the
daughter of the house.” Tleaving the hospitable Señoras
Rimirez with many thanks, we started on our return
journey about Seven o’clock. -
Ch. XV.] GEOILOGICAL FORMATION. 277
After crossing the river, I noticed boulders of con-
glomerate in the drift; none of these had occurred in
the valley of Depilto. The bed rock was still contorted
schists, with many quartz veins. At the top of a steep
rise, beyond the river, is a small plateau, or level terrace,
fringing the range, formed of a gravelly boulder deposit;
then another steep ascent led us to a second higher
plateau, like the first, covered with boulders, lying on
the level surface. The first beds of the quartz-conglo-
merate occurred about half-way between Ocotal and Tota-
galpa. Between it and the contorted schists we passed
over some soft, decomposing trap-rocks, which, both here
and elsewhere, appeared to intervene between these two
formations. Over the whole country between Ocotal
and Totagalpa were spread many large boulders, great
blocks of conglomerate, and of a hard blue trap-rock
that I did not see in situ, lying on the upturned edges of
the schistose rocks. I should have liked to have worked
out the exact relative positions of the quartz conglome-
rate and the contorted Schists, for I have no doubt that
a day or two's search amongst the ravines would have
shown many natural Sections that would have thrown
great light upon the subject; but I had no time to
devote to it. We were hurrying on every day as far as
our mules could carry us, as it was important that I
should get back to the mines before the end of the
month, and I was only able to note down the exposures
that occurred within sight of the road. These, however,
were sufficient to show me that the gneiss of Depilto was
overlain conformably by the contorted Schists; that the
latter were followed by soft trappean beds, and these by
thick beds of quartz conglomerate, apparently derived
278 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
from the degradation of the schistose rocks, with their
numerous quartz veins. -
We reached Totagalpa about eleven o’clock, and
stayed there some time engaging labourers. We stayed
at the house of a man who made the common palm-leaf
hats, worn throughout the central provinces by both men
and women. The palm-leaves are first boiled, then
bleached in the Sun, split into small strips, and platted
together like straw. It was Sunday, and most of the
people were in town, sitting at the doors of their huts,
or under their verandahs. Nearly all the inhabitants of
Totagalpa are pure Indians, and are very simple and in-
offensive people. They sat listening to three men, one
with a whistle, the others with drums, each striving to
make as much noise as possible, without any attempt at
harmony or tune, whilst an enthusiast in discord kept
clanging away at the bells of the church.
They had no padre of their own, but one occasionally
came over from Somoti, four leagues distant, to celebrate
services, or visit the sick. The next day was the great
feast of Totagalpa, and they were preparing for it. As
we sat under a verandah opposite the church, a proces-
sion of the town authorities issued from it, bearing a
table and all the silver and brass ornaments. The prin-
cipal officials each carried his stick of office, but none,
excepting the Alcalde, could boast a pair of shoes. Their
looks of importance and gravity showed, however, that
they considered themselves the chief actors in an im-
portant ceremony. The procession slowly traversed half
the round of the plaza, whilst the bells clanged, the
whistle Squeaked, and the drummers thumped their
loudest. Stopping at a house at the corner of the plaza,
Ch. XV.] CHICHA-DRINIKING. 279
the officials seated themselves on a bench outside. Then
was brought out to them in bowls, nearly as large as a
wash-hand basin, the old Indian drink, “chicha,” made
from fermented corn and sugar. Each of them had one
of the great bowls and a napkin ; the latter they spread
Over their knees, and rested the bowl on it, taking long
sips every now and then with evident signs of satis-
faction. Little have these people changed from the
times of the Conquest. Pascual de Andagoya, writing
of the people of Nicaragua when they were first sub-
jugated by Hernandez de Cordova, in 1520, says, “the
whole happiness of the people consists in drinking the
wine they make from maize, which is like beer, and on
this they get as drunk as if it was the wine of Spain;
and all the festivals they hold are for the purpose of
drinking.”
The cross, candlesticks, and other ornaments were
arranged on a table, and were each carefully and
solemnly washed with hot water. This they do every
year the day before their feast, and it makes the occasion
for the procession and chicha drinking. Most of the
men of the township were gathered around, and in all
the straight coarse black hair and Indian features were
unmistakeable. The chicha drinking was too long a
business for our patience, and we went over to the church,
where we found a number of the Indian women with
great baskets full of most beautiful and Sweet-smelling
flowers, making garlands and bouquets to decorate the
holy images and church. The beautiful flowers were
twined in wreaths, or stuck on prepared stands and
* Hakluyt Society. “Narrative of Pascual de Andagoya.” Trams.
by C. R. Markham, p. 34.
280 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XV.
shapes, and their fragrance filled the church. The love
of flowers is another beautiful trait of the old Indians
that their descendants have not lost. The ancient
Mexicans decorated their altars and temples with
flowers, and in their festivals crowned themselves with
garlands.
I mentioned the glistening white tower of the church
in the account of our journey out. I now learnt that it
was only finished the year before our visit, and had cost
these poor people over 700 dollars in money, besides
gifts of stone, wood, and labour amounting to more than
as much again. At other Mestizo towns, where the
churches were like dilapidated barns, we heard much of
the religious fervour of the Indians of Totagalpa. At
one time, when building the tower, both their funds and
the lime were exhausted. In this strait the Alcalde
called the people of the town together, and told them
that the tower, on the building of which they had
already spent so much, could not be finished without it.
Then and there they determined themselves to carry the
limestone from the quarries, near Ocotal, ten miles
distant. Next morning, before daylight, the whole
village set out, and at night a long line of men, women,
and children came staggering back into Totagalpa,
every one with a block of limestone; and so zealous
were they to bring as large stones as they could carry,
that some of them had great sores worn between their
shoulders where they carried their loads, slung,
Indian fashion, from their foreheads. Here survives
the same old Indian spirit, only turned in another
direction, that impelled their forefathers, with great
labour and patience, to bring from a distance and
Ch. XV.] DEVOTION TO THE PRIEST.S. 281
pile up great cairns of stones over the graves of their
chieftains.
This care of their church is quite spontaneous on their
part, as they have no padre; indeed from what I knew of
the priests in other towns, I think it likely that if they had
had one, he would have intercepted most of the offerings
expended on the church and images. There are excep-
tions, but generally the padres of Central America are
rapacious and immoral. They are much now as they were
in Thomas Gage's time, more than two hundred years ago,
and the poor Indians are just as humble and respectful
to them. In his quaint book, “A New Survey of the
West Indies,” he says, “Above all, to their priest they
are very respectful; and when they come to speak to him
put on their best clothes and study their words and
compliments to please him. They yielded to the popish
religion, especially to the worshipping of Saints’ images,
because they look upon them as much like their fore-
fathers' idols. Out of the smallest of their means they
will be sure to buy some of these saints, and bring them
to the church, that they may stand and be worshipped
by them and others. The churches are full of them,
and they are placed upon stands, gilded and painted, to
be carried in procession on their proper day. And hence
comes no small profit to the priests; for on such saints’
days the owner of the Saint makes a great feast in the
town, and presents the priest sometimes two or three,
sometimes four or five crowns for his mass and sermon,
besides a turkey and three or four fowls, with as much
cacao as will make him chocolate for all the octave or
eight days following. The priest, therefore, is very
watchful over these saints' days, and sends warning
282 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
beforehand to the Indians of the day of their saint. If
they contribute not bountifully, then the priest will chide
and threaten that he will not preach.” “
When we left Totagalpa, they were still drinking
“chicha; ” and I shall not forget the solemn satisfied
look of the shoeless corporation, as they sipped their
drink in sight of their townspeople, now and then singling
out Some friend, to whom they signed to come and quaff
at the big bowl. The warm drink had loosened the
tongue of the solemn alcalde. He came, and with many
compliments, wished us a good journey. He, good man,
had reached the summit of his ambition—he was the
chief of his native town; he wore shoes; and what more
could he hope for or desire? }
The central government interferes but little with the
local officials; and the small towns in the interior are
almost self-governed. Neither do they pay any direct
taxes, the only contributions to the national exchequer
being fees for killing cattle, selling land or houses, and
making agreements, and a government monopoly in the
sale of tobacco and spirits. So the country folks lead an
easy life, excepting in times of revolution, when they are
pressed into the army. The Indian townships are better
managed than those of the Spaniards and Mestizos; the
plazas are kept freer from weeds, and the roads in good
order. Probably nowhere but in tropical America can it
be said that the introduction of European civilisation has
been a retrogression; and that those communities are the
happiest and the best governed who retain most of their
old customs and habits. Yet there it is so. The civili-
sation that Cortez overthrew was more suitable for the
* Loc. cit., pp. 332—334.
Ch. XV.] ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF THE INDIANS. 283
Indians than that which has supplanted it. Who can
read the accounts of the populous towns of Mexico and
Central America, in the time of Montezuma, with their
magnificent buildings and squares; their gardens, both
Zoological and botanical; their markets, attended by
merchants from the surrounding countries; their beauti-
ful cloth and feather work, the latter now a lost art; their
cunning artificers in gold and silver; their astronomical
knowledge; their schools; their love of order, of cleanli-
ness, of decency; their morality and wonderful patriotism,
without feeling that the conquest of Mexico was a
deplorable calamity ; that if that ancient civilisation had
been saved, it might have been Christianised and purified
without being destroyed, and to-day have stood one of
the wonders and delights of the world. Its civilisation
was self-grown, it was indigenous, it was unique: a few
poor remnants of its piety, love of order, and self-govern-
ment still remain in remote Indian townships; but its
learning, magnificence, and glory have gone for ever.
On leaving Totagalpa, we took the road for Yalaguina.
About a mile from the first-named town, the contorted
Schists cropped up again, and were followed, as before,
by beds of soft decomposing trap, and these again by
thick beds of quartz conglomerate. This succession was
repeated two or three times during the day's journey.
The trap beds formed, by decomposition, a dark fertile
soil. Wherever maize was planted on it, it was thriving
greatly. We reached Yalaguina about two o'clock, and
pushed on for Palacaguina, four leagues further on, pass-
ing for a considerable part of the road along the banks of
a Small stream by the side of which were some large and
fine fields of maize and beans.
284 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
We reached Palacaguina an hour before dark; and on
asking for lodging for the night, were directed to a small
poor-looking house. The front door of this was closed
when we rode up, but was opened with haste, and about
a dozen young men rushed out, who, it turned out after-
wards, had been gambling, and hence the closed doors.
We were asked to alight; one man took the gun; others
offered to take our hats, to unload the pack-mule, &c.
Two or three of them were Zambeses, and not very
good-looking; they made themselves so officious, that
Velasquez confessed to me afterwards that he was rather
afraid of them, and thought they were too pressing in
their attentions, and meant to rob us. Our fears were
groundless; they had been suddenly startled in the midst
of an illegal game, and were glad to find that we were
not government officers pouncing upon them. The house
itself was dirty and small, with one hammock and one
chair for its furniture; we should have fared badly if one
of the men, Don Trinidad Soso, had not recollected having
once seen Velasquez before, and on the strength of that
considered himself bound to take our entertainment into
his own hands. He was the nephew of the padre, who
was absent, and he invited us to his uncle’s house, where
we were soon installed, and found it much more comfort-
able quarters. The padre had a good-looking house-
keeper, who was also an excellent cook; and she soon
got us ready a Supper of venison, tortillas, eggs, and
chocolate, to which we did not fail to do justice. Then
the padre's bedstead was placed at my disposal, so that
altogether we had been most fortunate in meeting with
our good friend Don Trinidad.
Most of the people living at Palacaguina were half-
Ch. XV.] FRESHNESS OF EARLY MORNING. 285
breeds with a large infusion of negro blood; and the
weed-covered streets and plaza and dilapidated church
compared unfavourably with the not far distant Indian
town of Totagalpa. The Mestizos are a thriftless, care-
less people; but I cannot here dilate on their failings.
Let only the hospitality and kindness I experienced in
Palacaguina live in my mind, and let regret draw a veil
over their failings, and censure forget to chide.
Next morning Don Trinidad went himself to get us
milk for our chocolate, and three or four others assisted
us as kindly on our departure as they had welcomed us
on our arrival; so that we rode away with more pleasant
recollections of the weedy-looking town than if we had
been entertained by grandees; for these people were
poor, and had assisted us out of pure good nature. The
country at first was level, and the roads Smooth and dry.
The morning was delightfully cool; and as we trotted
along our spirits were high and gay, and Snatches of Song
sprung unbidden to our lips. How delightful these rides
in the early morning were ! how all nature seemed to
be in accord with our feelings | Every bush and tree
was noted, every bird-call heard. We would shout to
one another, “Do you see this or that?” or set Rito off
into convulsions with some thin joke. Every sense was
gratified; it was like the youth of life. But as the day
wore on, the Sun would shine hotter and hotter; what
had been a pleasure became a toil; and we would push
on determinedly but silently. The day would wear on,
and our shadows come again and begin to lengthen; the
heat of the day was past, but our spirits would not mount
to their morning's height. The beautiful flowers, the
curious thorny bushes, the gorgeous butterflies, and
286 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
many-coloured birds, were all there; but our attention
could only be called unwillingly to them. Our jaded
animals trudged on with mechanical steps; and, tired
ourselves, we thought of nothing but getting to the end
of our day's journey, and resting our weary frames.
We did not return from Palacaguina by the road we
had come, but took one much more to the westward.
This we did, not only to see a fresh line of country, but
to gratify Rito with a visit to his relations, whom he had
not seen for two years. Two miles beyond Palacaguina,
we crossed a river, beyond which I saw no more of the
quartz conglomerate that I have so often mentioned
whilst passing through Segovia. From this place to the
mines the rocks were soft decomposing dolerites, with
many harder bands of felsite, and, occasionally, plains
composed of more recent trachytic lavas. -
We passed through another weedy, dilapidated town,
called Condego, where they have a singular custom at
their annual festival held on the 15th of May. For some
weeks before this date, they catch all the wild beasts and
birds they can, and keep them alive. During the night
preceding the feast-day they plant the plaza in front of
the church with full-grown plants of maize, rice, beans,
and all the other vegetables that they cultivate ; and
amongst them they fasten the wild beasts and birds that
have been collected; so that the sun that set on a bare,
weedy plaza rises on one full of vegetable and animal
life. The year before, a young jaguar that had been
caught was the great attraction. It has now grown so
large, that they are afraid of it, and do not know what
to do with it. It is kept in an empty house at Pueblo
Nuevo, along with a dog, to which it is greatly attached,
Ch. XV.] ASCEND THE HIGH RANGES. 287
although it is the one that caught it when young. The
custom of planting the square with vegetables, and
bringing together all the wild animals that can be col-
lected, is doubtless an Indian one. The ancient Ni-
caraguans are said to have worshipped maize and beans;
but the service may not have been dissimilar to our own
harvest feasts.
We reached the edge of the savannahs of the plain
of Segovia and began to ascend the high ranges that
divide it from the province of Matagalpa, and soon
entered a mountainous country. Our course at first lay
up the banks of a torrent that had cut deeply into beds
of boulder clay filled with great stones. The lower part
of the range was covered with trees of various kinds, but
none of them growing to a great height; higher up we
reached the sighing pine trees; and higher still, the
hills were covered with grass, and supported herds of
cattle. About noon, we reached a poor-looking hacienda
near the top of the range. The proprietor owned about
two hundred cattle, and lived in a house, mud-walled
and grass-thatched, consisting of one room and a kitchen.
Round the sides of the room were crowded eight rude
bedsteads, and hammocks were slung across the centre.
A mob of twenty-one men, women, and children, lived
at the house, and must have herded together like cattle
at night. There were a great number of half-clothed and
naked children running about. The women, of whom
there were six, made us some chocolate and tortillas
ready, and we rested awhile. Before we left, the men
came in with the milking cows and calves. There were
two men on horseback, but as the country was too rough
for riding fast, they were accompanied by three boys on
288 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
foot, who were sweating profusely with running after the
cattle. The calves were separated from the cows and
fastened up. The cows would keep near the corral until
the next morning, when they would be milked, and the
calves turned out with them again.
We continued to ascend for a mile further, and then
reached the top of the range, which was bare of trees
and covered with sedgy grass. Heavy rain came on
with tremendous gusts of wind, and as the path lay
along the very crest of the mountain range, we were
exposed to all the fury of the storm. In some places
the cargo mule was nearly blown down the steep slope,
and the one I was riding had to stop sometimes to keep
its feet. The wind was bleak, and we were drenched
with rain, and very cold. Fortunately the storm of rain
did not last for more than half an hour, but the high
cold wind continued all the time we were on the ridge,
which was several miles long, with steep slopes on either
side. We were glad when we got to a more sheltered
spot, where some mountain oak trees protected us from
the wind; and, at four o'clock, reaching a small scattered
settlement called Sontuli, we determined to stay, early
as it was, as it was Rito's birthplace, and his only sister,
whom he had not seen for two years, lived there. All
the hamlet were Rito's friends, and he had soon a crowd
about him talking and laughing.
None of the lands around were enclosed—all seemed
to be common property; and every family had a few
cows and two or three brood mares. A little maize was
grown, but the climate was rather too bleak and wet for
it. We were now close to the boundary of the province
of Matagalpa, and began again to hear of the drought
Ch. XV.] WOODS OF EVERGREEN O.A.K. 289
that had destroyed most of the maize crop in that
province, although in Chontales, on one side of it, we
had had rather more rain than usual, and in Segovia, on
the other, we had seen that the crops were excellent.
Probably the high ranges that bound Matagalpa on
every side had intercepted the rains and drained the
winds of their moisture. - -
Having made such an early halt, we intended to
have made up for it by an equally early start the next
morning, but were detained by our mules having strayed
during the night, and it was seven o’clock before they
could be found. We had a long day's journey before us,
during which we should not be able to buy any pro-
visions, so, over night, Rito's sister had cooked a fowl
for us to take with us. She had married one of the
Smallest settlers of Sontáli, and, although still young and
fresh-looking, had already three lusty children. The
great number of children at all the houses had sur-
prised me greatly, as I had been told that the country
was decreasing in population. This, I have no doubt, is
a mistake, and the inhabitants, if the country should
remain at peace, would multiply rapidly.
On leaving Sontáli, the road led over mountain pas-
tures and through woods of the evergreen oak draped
from top to bottom with the grey moss-like Tiſlandsia,
which hung in long festoons from every branch, and was
wound around the trunks, like garlands, by the wind :
the larger masses, waving in the breeze, hung down for
four or five feet below the branches. The small birds
build in them, and they form excellent hiding-places, for
their nests, where they are tolerably secure from the
attacks of their numerous enemies. I had often, when
U
290 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XV.
in the tropics, to notice the great sagacity or instinct of
the small birds in choosing places for their nests. So
many animals: monkeys, wild-cats, racoons, opossums,
and tree-rats, are constantly prowling about, looking out
for eggs and young birds, that, unless placed with great
care, their progeny would almost certainly be destroyed.
The different species of Oropendula or Orioles (Icteridae)
of tropical America choose high, smooth-barked trees,
standing apart from others, from which to hang their
pendulous nests. Monkeys cannot get at them from the
tops of other trees, and any predatory mammal attempt-
ing to ascend the Smooth trunks would be greatly
exposed to the attacks of the birds armed, as they are,
with strong sharp-pointed beaks. Several other birds in
the forest suspend their nests from the small but tough
air roots that hang down from the epiphytes growing on
the branches, where they often look like a natural bunch
of moss growing on them. The various prickly bushes
are much chosen, especially the bull's-horn thorn, which
I have already described. Many birds hang their nests
from the extremities of the branches, and a safer place
could hardly be chosen, as with the sharp thorns and the
stinging ants that inhabit them no mammal would, I
think, dare to attempt the ascent of the tree. Stinging
ants are not the only insects whose protection birds
secure by building near their nests. A small parrot
builds constantly on the plains in a hole made in the
nests of the termites, and a species of fly-catcher makes
its nest alongside of that of one of the wasps. On the
savannahs, between Acoyapo and Nancital, there is a
shrub with sharp curved prickles, called Viena paraca
(come here) by the Spaniards, because it is difficult to
Ch. XV.] SITES FOR BIRDS'-NEST.S. 291
extricate oneself from its hold when the dress is caught:
as one part is cleared another will be entangled. A
yellow and brown fly-catcher builds its nest in these
bushes, and generally places it alongside that of a
banded wasp, so that with the prickles and the wasps it
is well guarded. I witnessed, however, the death of one
of the birds from the very means it had chosen for the
protection of its young. Darting hurriedly out of its
domed nest as we were passing, it was caught just
under its bill by one of the curved hook-like thorns, and
in trying to extricate itself got further entangled. Its
fluttering disturbed the wasps, who flew down upon it,
and in less than a minute stung it to death. We tried
in vain to rescue it, for the wasps attacked us also, and
one of our party was severely stung by them. We had
to leave it hanging up dead in front of its nest, whilst its
mate flew round and round screaming out terror and
distress. I find that other travellers have noted the fact
of birds building their nests near colonies of wasps for
protection. Thus, according to Gosse, the grassquit
of Jamaica (Spermophila olivacea) often selects a shrub
on which wasps have built, and fixes the entrance to its
domed nest close to their cells; and Prince Maximilian
Neuwied states in his “Travels in Brazil,” that he found
the curious purse-shaped nest of one of the Todies con-
stantly placed near the nests of wasps, and that the
natives informed him that it did so to secure itself from
the attacks of its enemies. I should have thought that
when building their nests they would be very liable to
be attacked by the wasps. The nests placed in these
positions appear always to be domed, probably for Secu-
rity against their unstable friends.
L 2
CHAPTER XVI.
Concordia—Jinotega-Indian habits retained by the people—Indian
names of towns—Security of travellers in Nicaragua–Native
flour-mill—Uncomfortable lodgings—Tierrabona—Dust whirl-
wind—Initial form of a cyclone—The origin of cyclones.
SOME of the ranges were very craggy, and one was so
steep and rocky that we had to dismount and lead our
mules, and even then one of them fell several times.
These craggy ranges were covered with the evergreen
oaks, and we saw but few pine trees. Now and then we
passed over the tracks of the leaf-cutting ants, who were
hurrying along as usual, laden with pieces of foliage.
about the size of a sixpence. There were but few birds,
and insects also were scarce, the bleak wet weather
doubtless being unsuitable for them.
We now began to descend on the Matagalpa side of
the elevated ranges we had been travelling over, and
crossed many small valleys and streams, the latter
everywhere cutting through boulder clay, with very few
exposures of the bed rock. In the lower lands were
many cultivated patches of maize and beans, but the
country was very sparsely inhabited. At noon, we
reached a small town called Concordia, where the houses
were larger and better built than those in the Small
towns of Segovia; but the church was an ugly barn-like
Ch. XVI.] - INDIAN NAMES. 293
building, apparently much neglected. The rocks were
trachytes, and the soil seemed fertile, but there was
very little of it cultivated. Many of the men we met
wore long Swords instead of the usual machetes. There
is a school for learning fencing at Concordia, and the
people of the district are celebrated for being expert
Swordsmen. They have often fencing matches. The
best man is called the champion, and he is bound to try
conclusions with every one that challenges him.
After leaving Concordia we had only one more range
to cross, and then began to descend towards the plains
below Jinotega, and about dusk reached that town and
were kindly received by our former entertainers. Doubt-
less much European blood runs in the veins of the in-
habitants of Jinotega, but in their whole manner of
living they follow the Indian ways, and it is the same
throughout Nicaragua, excepting amongst the higher
classes in the large towns. All their cooking vessels
are Indian. Just as in the Indian huts, every pot or
pan is of coarse pottery and each dish is cooked on a
separate little fire. The drinks in common use are
Indian and have Indian names; tiste, pinul, pinullo and
chicha, all made from maize, sugar, and chocolate. As
a rule, whatever was new to the Spaniards when they
invaded the country retains its Indian name; as for
instance every stage of growth of the maize plant,
“chilote,” elote, and maizorca. The stones for grinding
the maize are exactly the same as those found in the
old Indian graves, and they are still called the “metlate.”
All the towns we passed through in Segovia retained
their Indian names, though their present inhabitants
know nothing of their meaning. The old names of
294 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
many of the towns are probably remnants of a language
earlier than that of the inhabitants at the time of the
conquest, and their study might throw some light on the
distribution of the ancient peoples. Unfortunately the
names of places are very incorrectly given in the best
maps of Central America, through every traveller having
spelt them according to the orthography of his own lan-
guage. Throughout this book I have spelt proper names
in accordance with the pronunciation of the Spanish
letters.
Many of the names of towns in Nicaragua and Hon-
duras end in “galpa,” as Mayogalpa, Juigalpa, Tota-
galpa, and Matagalpa. Places apparently of less con-
sequence in Segovia often end in the termination “lee’’
strongly accented, as Jamaily, Esterly, Daraily, &c., and
in “guina” pronounced “weena,” as in Palacaguina and
Yalaguina. In Chontales many end in “apa,” or “apo,”
as Cuapo, Comoapa, Comelapa, Acoyapo, and others.
The Spaniards whenever they gave a name to a town
either named it after some city in Spain or after their
Saints. There are dozens of Santo Rosas, San Juans,
and San Tomases. Even some of the towns, which have
well-known Indian names, are called officially after some
Spanish Saint, but the common people stick to the old
names, and they are not to be thrust aside.
We had a long talk with our courteous host of the
estanca at Jinotega. He had a small library of books,
nearly all being missals and prayer-books. He had a
little knowledge of geography and was wishful to learn
about Europe, and at the same time most desirous that
we should not think that he, one of the chief men of the
town, did not know all about it. That England was a
Ch. XVI.] DARING ROBB]º RIES UNKNOWN. 295
Small island he admitted was new to him, as he thought
it was part of the United States or at least joined to
them. He asked if it was true that Rome was one of
the four quarters of the globe. We explained that it
was only a large city, to which he replied gravely, that
he knew it was so, but wished to have our opinion to
confirm his own.
No newspapers came to Jinotega, excepting occasion-
ally a Government gazette, and only a few of the grown-
up people are able to read. News travels quickly from
one to another but every incident is greatly exaggerated,
and many extravagant stories are set afloat with no other
foundation than the inventive faculties of some idle brain.
To appreciate what an immense aid a newspaper press is
to the dissemination of truth one must travel in some such
country as Nicaragua where newspapers do not circulate.
It is impossible to get trustworthy intelligence about any
event that has happened a hundred miles away, and
stories of murders and robberies that were never com-
mitted are widely circulated amongst the credulous
people. As far as my experience goes highway robbery
is unknown in Nicaragua. Foreigners entrusted with
money have stated they have been robbed, but there has
always been suspicions that they have themselves em-
bezzled the money that they say they have lost. I
myself never carried arms for defence in the country, and
was never molested nor even insulted, though I often
travelled alone. The only dangerous characters in the
country are the lower class of foreigners, and these are
not numerous. Petty thefts are common enough, and at
the mines we found that none of the labouring class were
to be trusted; but robberies of a daring character or
296 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
accompanied by violence were never committed by the
natives to my knowledge. •
In their drinking bouts they often quarrel among them-
selves, and slash about with their long heavy knives, in-
flicting ugly gashes and often maiming each other for
life. One-armed men are not uncommon; and I myself
knew of two cases where an arm was chopped off in
these encounters. Nearly every pay-week our medical
officer was sent for to sew up the wounds that had been
received. Fortunately even at these times they do not
interfere with foreigners, their quarrels being amongst
themselves, and either faction fights or about their
women, or gambling losses. Many of the worst cases of
cutting with knives were by the Honduraneans employed
at the mines, who generally got off through the mountains
to their own country. One who was taken managed to
escape by inducing the soldiers who had him in charge
to take him up to the mines to bring out his tools. He
went in at the level whilst they guarded the entrance.
Hour after hour passed without his returning, and at last
they learnt that he had got through some old workings
to another opening into the mine and had started for
Honduras. Once in the bush pursuit is hopeless, as the
undergrowth is so dense that it is impossible to follow
by sight.
We left Jinotega at seven in the morning, passed over
the pine-clad ranges again and at one o’clock came in
sight of the town of Matagalpa. At the river a mill
was at work grinding wheat. I went into the shed that
covered it and found it to be simple and ingenious.
Below the floor was a small horizontal water-wheel
driven by the stream striking against the inclined floats.
Ch. XVI.] UN COMFORTABLE LOD GIN G. 297
The shaft of the wheel passed up through the floor and
the lower stone, and was fixed to the upper one which
turned round with it without any greasing. The flour
made is dark and full of impurities, as no care is taken to
keep it clean.
We found the mules and horses we had left at Mata-
galpa in good condition, and after getting some dinner
started again, taking the road towards Teustepe instead
of that by which we had come, as we were told we
should avoid the swamps by so doing, for more to the
Westward they had had no rain. We rode down the
Valley below the town and found it very dry and barren,
the only industry worth naming being a small indigo
plantation. Indigo seems to have been more cultivated
formerly than now, as in many parts I saw the deserted
Vats in which the plants are steeped to extract the dye.
We ascended a high range to the left of the valley, on
the top of which were a few pine-trees that we were told
were the last we should see on the road to Chontales.
On the other side of the range the descent was very steep,
and the road was carried down the precipitous and rocky
slope in a series of zigzags, so that we saw the mules a
few score yards in advance directly under our feet.
From the hill we had seen a house in the valley,
and as night was setting in we sought for it, but the
whole district was so covered with low scrubby trees with
many paths running in various directions that it was long
before we found it; and when at last we discovered it, the
prospect before us of a night's lodging was so discourag-
ing that if it had not then been getting quite dark, and
We were told that we should have to travel several miles
before coming to another house, we should have sought
298 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
for other shelter. The small hut was as usual filled
with men, women, and children. Two of the women
Were lying ill and one seemed to be dying. There was
no room for us in the hut if we had been willing to enter
it, but we slung our hammocks under a small open-
sided shed near by and passed a miserable night. A
strong cold wind was blowing, and the swinging of the
hammocks caused by it kept a number of dogs con-
tinually barking and snapping at our hammocks and
boots. We rose cold and cramped at daylight, and
without waiting to make ready any coffee, saddled our
beasts and rode away.
A little maize was grown about this place, and the
people told us that sugar thrived, but the plantations of
it were small and ill-kept, and everything had a look of
poverty and decadence. They said that twenty years
ago there was no bush growing around their house, but the
country was open grassed savannahs, and that there was
less fever; now the bush grows up to their very doors,
and they will not take the trouble to cut it down even to
Save themselves from the attacks of fever. Here, as
everywhere throughout the central provinces, deep in-
grained indolence paralyses all industry or enterprise,
and with the means of plenty and comfort on every side
the people live in squalid poverty.
For four leagues we rode over high ranges with very
fine Valleys separating them, containing many thatched
houses and fields of maize, sugar, and beans. Where
not now cultivated the sides of the ranges were covered
with weedy-looking shrubs and low trees, proving that
all the land had at one time been cropped, and this was
further shown by the old lines of pinuela fences and
Ch. XVI.] TIGER-BEETLES AND BUTTERFLIES. 299
ditches that were seen here and there amongst the brush-
Wood. As we got further south the alluvial flats in the
Valleys increased in size and fertility, and the cultivated
fields were enclosed with permanent fences. On some of
the ranges we crossed the rocks were amygdaloidal, con-
taining nests of a white zeolite, the fractured planes of
which glittered like gems on the pathway.
Eight leagues from Matagalpa we reached the Small
town of Tierrabona, where, as the name implies, the land
was very good. Every house had an enclosure around
it, planted with maize and beans; and though it was
evident that the land was cropped year after year, it still
seemed to bear well. We stopped at a small brook just
outside the town, and eat some provisions we had brought
from Matagalpa. Some speckled tiger-beetles ran about
the dusty road; and on wet, muddy places near the
stream groups of butterflies collected to suck the moisture.
Amongst them were some fine swallow-tails (Papilio),
quivering their wings as they drank, and lovely blue hair-
streaks (Thecla). The latter, when they alight, rub
their wings together, moving their curious tail-like
appendages up and down. Great dragon-flies hawked
after flies; and on the surface of still pools “whirligigs”
(Gyrinidae) wheeled about in mazy gyrations, just as they
are seen to do at home.
Savannahs, sparingly timbered, were next crossed;
then we reached one of those level plains, with black
Soil and blocks of porus trachyte lying on the surface,
which are swamps in the rainy season, and have for
vegetation Sedgy grasses and Scattered jicara trees,
cactuses and thorny acacias. Up to the time we passed,
there had been no rain in these parts, and the plain was
300 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
dry and bare, with great cracks in the black soil. The
grass had not sprung up ; not a breath of air was stir-
ring; and the heated air quivered over the parched
ground, forming in the distance an imperfect mirage.
Directly overhead the noonday sun hung in the hot,
hazy sky. As we moodily toiled over the plain, my
attention was arrested by a dust whirlwind that suddenly
sprung up about fifty yards to our left. The few dry
leaves on the ground began to whirl round and round,
and to ascend; and in a minute a spiral column was
formed, reaching, perhaps, to the height of fifty feet, con-
sisting of dust and dry dead leaves, all whirling round
with the greatest rapidity. The column was only a few
yards in diameter; and it moved slowly along, nearly
parallel with our course, but only lasting a few minutes;
so that before I could point it out to Velasquez, who had
ridden on ahead, it had dissolved away. I had been
very familiar with these air eddies in Australia, and
had hoped to carry on some investigations concerning
them, begun there, in Central America; but, though
common on the plains of Mexico and of South America,
this was the only one I witnessed in Central America.
The interest with which I regarded these miniature
storms was due to the assistance that their study was
likely to give in the discussion of the cause of all
circular movements of the atmosphere, including the
dreaded typhoon and cyclone. All the chief meteoro-
logists who have discussed this difficult question have ap-
proached it from the side of the larger hurricanes. There
is a complete gradation from the little dust eddies up
through larger whirlwinds and tornados to the awful
typhoons and cyclones of China and the West Indies;
Ch. XVI.] WHIRLWINDS AND CYCLONES. 301
and it has long been my opinion that if meteorologists
devoted their attention to the smaller eddies that can be
looked at from the outside, and their commencement,
continuance, and completion watched and chronicled,
they could not fail to obtain a large amount of informa-
tion to guide them in the study of all cyclonic movements
of the atmosphere.
Unless the smaller whirlwinds are quite distinct from
the larger ones in their origin, the theories advanced by
meteorologists to account for the latter are certainly un-
tenable. According to the celebrated M. Dove, cyclones
owe their origin to the intrusion of the upper counter
, trade-wind into the lower trade-wind current.* More
lately, Prof. T. B. Maury has stated that “the origin of
cyclones is found in the tendency of the south-east trade-
winds to invade the territory of the north-east trades by
sweeping over the equator into our hemisphere, the
lateral conflict of the currents giving an initial impulse
to bodies of air by which they begin to rotate.” Cyclones
having thus originated, Prof. Maury considers that they
are continued and intensified by the vapour condensed in
their vortex, forming a vacuum.f
Humboldt had long ago ascribed whirlwinds to the meet-
ing of opposing currents of air.: There is this dynamical
objection to the theory. The movements of the air in
whirlwinds is much more rapid than in any known
straight current, such as the trade winds; and it is im-
possible that two opposing currents should generate
between them one of much greater force and rapidity.
* “Law of Storms,” p. 246.
f “Quarterly Journal of Science,” 1872, p. 418.
i. “Aspects of Nature,” vol. i. p. 17.
302 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XVI.
But even if this fundamental objection to the theory
could be set aside, the small whirlwinds could not thus
arise, as they are most frequent when the air is nearly
or quite motionless.
Then, again, when we turn to Prof. Maury’s theory that
the cyclones, having been initiated by the conflict of
contrary currents, are continued and intensified by the
condensation of vapour in their vortex forming a vacuum,
we find it negatived by the fact that in the smaller
whirlwinds the air is dry, and there is consequently no
condensation of vapour; and yet, in comparison with
their size, they are of as great violence as the fiercest
typhoon. Tylor describes the numerous dust whirlwinds.
he saw on the plains of Mexico,” Clarke those on the
steppes of Russia, and Bruce those on the deserts of
Africa; and nowhere is there mention made of any con-
densation of vapour. I myself have seen scores of
whirlwinds in Australia, some of them rising to a height
of over one hundred feet; yet there was never any per-
ceptible condensation of vapour, though some of them
were of sufficient force to tear off limbs of trees, and
carry up the tents of gold-diggers into the air. Franklin
describes a whirlwind of greater violence than any of
these. It commenced in Maryland by taking up the
dust over a road in the form of an inverted sugar-loaf, and
soon increased greatly in size and violence. Franklin
followed it on horseback, and saw if enter a wood, where it
twisted and turned round large trees: leaves and boughs
were carried up so high that they appeared to the eye
like flies. Again there was no condensation of vapour.
+ £g Anahuac,” by E. B. Tylor, p. 21.
Ch. XVI.] WEIIRLWINDS AND CYCLONES. 303
We thus see that whirlwinds of great violence occur
when the air is dry, and there can be no condensation.
When, however, they are formed at Sea, and occasionally
on land, the air next the surface is saturated with mois-
ture; and this moisture is condensed when it is carried
to a great height, forming clouds, or falling in showers of
rain and hail. This condensation of vapour is an effect,
and not a cause, and takes place, not in the centre, but
at the top or at the sides of the ascending column. This
is well shown in an account, by an eyewitness, of a
whirlwind that did great damage near the shore of Lough
Neagh in Ireland, in August, 1872.* It was about
thirty yards in diameter. It destroyed several hay-
stacks, and carried the hay up into the air out of sight.
It partially unroofed houses, and tore off the branches of
trees. The railway station at Randalstown was much
injured; great numbers of slates, and two and a half
hundredweight of lead were torn from the roof. When
passing over a portion of the lake, it presented the ap-
pearance of a water-spout. On land everything that it
lapped up was whirled round and round, and carried up-
wards in the centre, whilst dense clouds surrounded the
outside and came down near to the earth.
In Australia I had many opportunities of studying the
dust whirlwinds; and as I looked upon them as the
initial form of a cyclone, I paid much attention to them.
On a small plain, near to Maryborough, in the province
of Victoria, they were of frequent occurrence in the hot
season. This plain was about two miles across, and was
nearly surrounded by trees. In calm, Sultry weather,
* “Nature,” vol. vi. p. 541.
304 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
during the heat of the day, there were often two at once
in action in different parts of it. They were only a few
yards in diameter, but reached to a height of over one
hundred feet, and were often, in their higher part, bent
out of their perpendicular by upper aerial currents. The
dust and leaves they carried up rendered their upward
spiral movement very conspicuous. No one who studied
these whirlwinds could for a moment believe that they
were caused by conflicting currents of air. They occurred
most frequently when there was least wind; and this
particular plain seemed to be peculiarly suitable for their
formation, because it was nearly surrounded by trees,
and currents of air were prevented. They lasted several
minutes, slowly moving across the plain, like great pillars
of smoke.
When attentively watched from a short distance, it
was seen that as soon as one was formed, the air
immediately next the heated soil, which was before
motionless or quivering, like over a furnace, was moving
in all directions towards the apex of the dust-column.
As these currents approached the whirlwind, they
quickened and carried with them loose dust and leaves
into the spiral whirl. The movement was similar to that
which occurs when a small opening is made at the
bottom of a wide shallow vessel of water: all the liquid
moves towards it, and assumes a spiral movement as it
is drawn off. $
The conclusion I arrived at, and which has since been
confirmed by further study of the question, was, that the
particles of air next the surface did not always rise
immediately they were heated, but that they often
remained and formed a stratum of rarified air next the
Ch. XVI.] WHIRLWINDS AND CYCLONES. 305
Surface, which was in a state of unstable equilibrium.
This continued until the heated stratum was able, at
Some point where the ground favoured a comparatively
greater accumulation of heat, to break through the over-
lying strata of air, and force its way upwards. An
opening once made, the whole of the heated air moved
towards it and was drained off, the heavier layers sinking
down and pressing it out. Sir George Airy has sug-
gested to me that the reason of the particles of air not
rising as they are heated, when there is no wind blowing,
may be due to their viscosity; and this suggestion is pro-
bably correct. That air does not always rise when
heated, may be proved by the hot winds of Australia,
which blow from the heated interior towards the cooler
South, instead of rising directly upwards. Sultry, close
weather, that sometimes lasts for several days, would
also be impossible on the assumption that air rises as
Soon as it is heated. -
This explanation supplies the force that is necessary to
drive the air with the great velocity with which it moves
in whirlstorms. The upper, colder, and heavier air is
pressing upon the heated stratum, and the greater area
over which the latter extends, the greater will be the
weight pressing upon it, and the greater the violence of
the whirlwind when an opening is formed for the ascent
of the heated air. There is a gradual passage, from the
small dust eddies, through larger whirlstorms such as
that at Lough Neagh, to tornados and the largest
cyclone; every step of the gradation might be verified
by numerous examples; and if this book were a treatise
on meteorology, it might be admissible to give them ;
but to do this would take up too much of my space, and
X
306 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVI.
I shall only now make some observations on the largest
form of whirlstorm—the dreaded cyclone.
Just as over the little plain at Maryborough, protected
by the surrounding forest from the action of the wind,
the heated air accumulates over the surface until carried
off in dust eddies; so, though on a vastly larger scale, in
that great bight formed by the coasts of north and South
America, having for its apex the Gulf of Mexico, there
is an immense area in the northern tropics, nearly sur-
rounded by land, forming a vast oceanic plain, shut off
from the regular action of the trade winds by the great
islands of Cuba and Hayti, where the elements of the
hurricane accumulate, and at last break forth. In this
and such like areas, the lower atmosphere is gradually
heated from week to week by the direct rays of the sun
during the day, by radiation from the sea during the
night ; and, as in Australia, the quivering of the air over
the hot ground foreshadows the whirlwind, and in Africa
the mirage threatens the simoom, so in the West Indies
a continuance of close, Sultry weather, an oppressive
calm, precedes the hurricane. When at last the huge
vortex is formed, the heated atmosphere rushes towards
it from all sides, and is drained upwards in a spiral
column, just as in the dust eddy, on a gigantic scale.
Unlike the air of the dust-eddy, that of the hurricane
coming from the warm surface of the ocean is nearly
Saturated with vapour, and this, as it is carried up and
brought into contact with the colder air on the outside
of the ascending column, is condensed and falls in tor-
rents of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.
I advanced this theory to account for the origin of
whirlwinds in a paper read before the Philosophical
Ch. XVI.] EXPLANATION OF CYCLONES. 307
Institute of Victoria, in 1857. It was afterwards com-
municated by the Astronomer Royal to the “London
Philosophical Magazine,” where it appeared in January,
1859. A suggestion that I at the same time offered,
that the opposite rotation of cyclones in the two hemi-
spheres was due to the same causes as the westerly
deflection of the trade winds from a direct meridional
course, has been generally received by physicists, and I
am not without hopes that the main theory may also yet
be accepted; but whether or not, I am confident that a
study of the smaller eddies of air is the proper way to
approach the difficult question of the origin of cyclones.
$$.
CHAPTER XVII.
Cattle-raising—Don Filiberto Trano's new house–Horse-flies and
wasps—Teustepe—Spider imitating ants — Mimetic species—
Animals with Special means of defence are conspicuously
marked, or in other ways attract attention—Accident to horse
—The J/ygale–Illness—Conclusion of journey.
AFTER crossing the trachytic plain, we reached a large
cattle hacienda, and beyond, the river Chocoyo, on the
banks of which was some good, though stony, pasture
land. We saw here some fine cattle, and learnt that a
little more care was taken in breeding them than is usual
in Nicaragua. The country, with its rolling Savannahs,
covered with grass, is admirably suited for cattle-raising,
and great numbers are exported to the neighbouring
country of Costa Rica. Scarcely any attention is, how-
ever, paid to the improvement of the breeds. Few
stations have reserve potreros of grass; in consequence,
whenever an unusually dry season occurs, the cattle die
by hundreds, and their bones may be seen lying all over
the plains. Both Pará and Guinea grass grow, when
planted and protected, with the greatest luxuriance; and
the latter especially forms an excellent reserve, as it
grows in dense tufts that cannot be destroyed by the
cattle. When not protected by fencing, however, the
cattle and mules prefer these grasses So much to the
native ones, that they are always close-cropped, and
Ch. XVII.] A PEASANT FARMER. 309
when the natural pasturage fails there is no reserve of
the other to fall back on. I planted both the Pará and
Guinea grasses largely at the mines and at Pital, and
we were able to keep our mules always in good condi-
tion with them.
About four o’clock in the afternoon our animals were
getting tired, and we ourselves were rather fatigued,
having been in the saddle since day-light, with the excep-
tion of a few minutes' rest at Tierrabona. We halted at a
thatched cottage on some high Stony Savannah land, and
were hospitably received by the peasant proprietor, Don
Filiberto Trano. He informed us that we had entered
the township of Teustepe, and that the town itself was
eight leagues distant. The family consisted of Don
Filiberto, his wife, and four or five children. They had
just prepared for their own dinner a young fowl, stewed
with green beans and other vegetables, and this they
placed before us, saying that they would soon cook some-
thing else for themselves. We were too hungry to make
any scruples, and after the poor, coarse fare we had been
used to, the savoury repast seemed the most delicious I
ever tasted. I think we only got two meals on the whole
journey that we really enjoyed. This was one, the other
the supper that the padre's housekeeper at Palacaguina
cooked for us, and I have recorded at length the names
of the parties to whom we were indebted for them.
Don Filiberto had about twenty cows, all of which that
could be found were driven in at dusk, and the calves
tied up. As they came in, the fowls were on the look-out
for the garrapatoes, or ticks; and the cows, accustomed
to the process, stood quietly while they flew up and
picked them off their necks and flanks. The calves are
310 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
always turned out with the cows in the morning, after
the latter are milked, so that if not found again for
some days, as is often the case in this bushy and unen-
closed country, they milk the cows and do not go dry.
The cows give very little milk, probably due to the
entire want of care in breeding them. It is at once
made into cheese, which forms a staple article of food
amongst the poorer natives.
The small house was divided into three compartments,
one being used as a kitchen. It was in rather a dilapi-
dated condition, and Don Filiberto told me that he was
busy building a new residence. I was curious to see
what progress he was making with it, and he took me
outside and showed me four old posts used for tying the
cows to, which had evidently been in the ground for
many years. “There,” he said, “are the corner-posts,
and I shall roof it with tiles.” He was quite grève, but
I could not help smiling at his faith. I have no doubt
that, as long as he lives, he will lounge about all day,
and in the evening, when his wife and children are milk-
ing the cows, will come out, Smoke his cigarette, leaning
against the door-post of his patched and propped-up
dwelling, and contemplate the four old posts with a
proud feeling of satisfaction that he is building a new
house. Such a picture is typical of Nicaragua.
Don Filiberto told us that there was a limestone
quarry not far from his house; and as I wished to learn
whether it occurred in beds or veins, I proposed next
morning to walk over to it, but he said we should need
the mules to cross the river. Thinking, from his descrip-
tion, that it was only about a mile distant, I started on
mule-back with him ; but after riding fully a league, dis-
Ch. XVII.] FREE HOSPITALITY. 311
covered that he actually did not know himself where it
was, but was seeking for another man to show him. We
at last arrived at the house of this man, but he was
absent. A boy showed us a small piece of the limestone.
It was concretionary, and I learnt from him that it
occurred in veins. I was vexed about the time we had
lost, and the extra work we had given the poor mules;
my Only consolation was that as we rode back I
picked a fine new longicorn beetle off the leaves of an
overhanging tree.
When we came to settle up with our host he proposed
to charge us twenty-five cents, just one shilling, or four-
pence each. They had given us a good dinner and put
themselves to much inconvenience to provide me with a
bedstead, and this was their modest charge. Nor did
they make it with any expectation that we would give
more. It is the universal custom amongst the Mestizo
peasantry to entertain travellers; to give them the best
they have and to charge for the bare value of the pro-
visions, and nothing for the lodging. We could so de-
pend upon the hospitality of the lower classes that every
day we travelled on without any settled place to pass the
night, convinced that we should be received with welcome
at any hut that we might arrive at when our mules got
tired or night came on. The only place in the whole
journey where we had been received with hesitation was
at the Indian house a day's journey beyond Olama.
There the people were pure Indians, and other circum-
stances made me conclude that the Indians were not so
hospitable as the Mestizos.
We finally started about nine o'clock and rode over
dry Savannahs, where although there was little grass I
312 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
was told that cattle did well browsing on the small
brushwood with which the hills were covered. All the
forenoon we travelled over stony ranges and dry plains
and Savannahs. At noon we reached the dry bed of a
river and crossed it several times, but could find no
water to quench our thirst, whilst the sun shone down on
us pitilessly hot. About one o’clock we found some pools
where the bed of the river was bare rock with rounded
hollows containing water, warm but clean, as the cattle
could not walk over the smooth slopes to get at it.
Here we halted for an hour and had some tiste and
maize cakes, and cut some Guinea grass that grew
amongst the rocks for our mules. Over the heated
rocks scampered brown lizards, chasing each other
and revelling in the sunshine. Butterflies on lazy
wings came and settled on damp spots, and the
cicada kept up his shrill continuous monotone, but
not so loudly as he would later on when it got cooler.
The cicada is supposed by some to pipe only during
mid-day, but both in Central America and Brazil I
found them loudest towards sunset, keeping up their
shrill music until it is taken up by night-vocal crickets
and locusts.
We were returning parallel to our course in going to
Segovia, but several leagues to the westward, and this had
made a wonderful difference in the climate. In the road
we went we were wading through muddy swamps and
drenched with continual rains. Here the plains were
parched with heat, vegetation was dried up, and there
was scarcely any water in the river beds. The north-
east trade wind, before it reached this far, had given
up its moisture to the forests of the Atlantic slope, and
Ch. XVII.] EIORSE-FLIES AND WASPS. 313
now passed over without even a cloud to relieve the deep
blue of the sky or temper the rays of the sun.
The vegetation on the plains was almost entirely com-
posed of thorny plants and shrubs; acacias, cacti, and
bromeliae were the most abundant. Animal life was
Scarce; there were a few flycatchers amongst the birds,
and armadillos were the only mammals. Horse-flies
(Tabanus) were too numerous, and drops of blood trickled
down our mules’ faces where they had feasted. In some
parts large, banded black and yellow wasps (Monedula
Surinamensis, Fabr.) came flying round us and had a
threatening look as they hovered before our faces, but
they were old acquaintances of mine in Brazil, and I knew
that they were only searching about for the horse-flies
with which they store their nests, just as other wasps do
with spiders, first benumbing them with their sting. I
noted here another instance of the instinctive dread that
insects have of their natural enemies. The horse-flies
were so blood-thirsty that we could kill them with the
greatest ease with our hands on the mules' necks, or if
we drove them away they would return immediately.
As soon however as a wasp came hawking round,
the flies lost their sluggish apathy and disappeared
amongst the bushes, and I do not think that excepting
when gorged with blood they would easily fall a prey to
their pursuers.
We were joined on the road by a storekeeper on his
way to Teustepe. He was armed with pistols, which it
is the fashion to carry in Nicaragua, though many
travellers have nothing more formidable in their holsters
than a spirit flask and some biscuits. He talked as usual
of threatened revolutionary risings, but these form
314 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
the staple conversation throughout Central America
amongst the middle classes, and until they really do
break out it is best not to believe in them. He told us
also that the drought had been very great around Teu-
stepe, and that the crops were destroyed by it.
About three we reached the town, and after buying
Some provisions to take with us, pushed on again. Below
Teustepe we crossed the river Malacatoyo which empties
into the Lake of Nicaragua, and beyond it the road
passed over a wide alluvial flat with high trees, amongst
which we saw a flock of white-faced monkeys.
On the leaves of the bushes there were many curious
species of Buprestidae, and I struck these and other
beetles off with my net as I rode along. After one such
capture I observed what appeared to be one of the black
stinging ants on the net. It was a small spider that
closely resembled an ant, and so perfect was the imitation
that it was not until I killed it that I determined that it
was a spider and that I need not be afraid of it stinging
me. What added greatly to the resemblance was, that,
unlike other spiders, it held up its two forelegs like
antennae, and moved them about just like an ant. Other
species of spiders closely resemble stinging ants; in all
of them the body is drawn out long like an ant, and in
Some the maxillary palpi are lengthened and thickened
so as to resemble the head of one.
Ant-like spiders have been noticed throughout tropical
America and also in Africa.” The use that the deceptive
resemblance is to them has been explained to be the
facility it affords them for approaching ants on which
* See “Nature,” vol. iii. p. 508.
Ch. XVII.] IMITATIVE RESEMBLANCES. 315.
they prey. I am convinced that this explanation is
incorrect so far as the Central America species are con-
cerned. Ants, and especially the stinging species are, so
far as my experience goes, not preyed upon by any other
insects. No disguise need be adopted to approach them,
as they are so bold that they are more likely to attack
the spider than a spider them. Neither have they wings
to escape by flying, and generally go in large bodies
easily found and approached. The real use is, I doubt
not, the protection the disguise affords against Small in-
sectivorous birds. I have found the crops of some hum-
ming birds full of small soft-bodied spiders, and many
other birds feed on them. Stinging ants, like bees and
wasps, are closely resembled by a host of other insects;
indeed, whenever Ifound any insect provided with special
means of defence I looked for imitative forms, and was
never disappointed in finding them.
Stinging ants are not only closely copied in form and
movements by spiders but by species of Hemiptera and
Coleoptera, and the resemblance is often wonderfully
close.* All over the world wasps are imitated in form
and movements by other insects, and in the tropics these
mimetic forms are endless. In many cases the insect
imitating is so widely removed, in the normal form of the
order to which it belongs, from that of the insect imitated,
that it is difficult to imagine how the first steps in the
process of imitation took place. Dooking however at the
immense variety of insect life in the tropics, and remem-
bering that in early tertiary times, nearly the whole
* Amongst the longicorn beetles of Chontales, Mallocera, Spinicol-
lis, Neoclytus CEsopus, and Diphyrama singularis, Bates, all closely
resemble stinging ants when moving about on fallen logs.
316 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
World was in the same favourable condition as regards
temperature (vegetation, according to Heer, extending to
the poles), and must have supported a vast number of
species and genera that were destroyed during the glacial
period, we must suppose that, in that great variety of
forms, it sometimes occurred that two species belonging
to distinct orders somewhat resembled each other in form
or colouration, and that the resemblance was gradually
increased, when one species had special means of pro-
tection, by the other being benefited the more nearly it
approached it in appearance.
It is to be remarked that the forms imitated have
always some kind of defence against insectivorous birds
or mammals; they are provided with stings or unpleasant
odours or flavours, or are exceedingly swift in flight; ex-
cepting where inanimate nature is imitated for conceal-
ment. Thus I had an opportunity of proving in Brazil
that some birds, if not all, reject the Heliconii butterflies,
which are closely resembled by butterflies of other families
and by moths. I observed a pair of birds that were bringing
butterflies and dragon flies to their young, and although
the Heliconii swarmed in the neighbourhood and are of
weak flight so as to be easily caught, the birds never
brought one to their nest. I had a still better means of
testing both these and other insects that are mimicked in
Nicaragua. The tame white-faced monkey I have
already mentioned was extremely fond of insects, and
would greedily munch up any beetle or butterfly given
to him, and I used to bring to him any insects that I
found imitated by others to see whether they were distaste-
ful or not. I found he would never eat the Heliconii. He
was too polite not to take them when they were offered to
Ch. XVII.] MIMETIC COLEOPTERA. 317
him, and would sometimes smell them, but invariably
rolled them up in his hand and dropped them quietly
again after a few moments. A large species of spider
(Nephi/a) also used to drop them out of its web when I
put them into it. Another spider that frequented flowers
seemed to be fond of them, and I have already mentioned
a wasp that caught them to store its nest with. There
could be no doubt, however, from the monkey’s actions,
that they were distasteful to him.
Amongst the beetles there is a family that is just as
much mimicked as the Heliconii are amongst the butter-
flies. These are the Lampyridae, to which the fireflies
belong. Many of the genera are not phosphorescent, but
all appear to be distasteful to insectivorous mammals and
birds. I found they were invariably rejected by the
monkey, and my fowls would not touch them.
The genus Calopteron belonging to this family is not
phosphorescent. In some of the species, as in C. basalis,
(Klug), the wing-covers are widened out behind in a
peculiar manner. This and other species of Calopteron
are not only imitated in their colour and markings by
other families of beetles but also in this peculiar widening
of the elytra. Besides this, the Calopteron when walking
on a leaf raises and depresses its wing cases, and I ob-
served exactly the same movement in a longicorn beetle
(Evander mobilis, Bates) which is evidently a mimetic
form of this species. In addition to being mimicked by
other families of beetles, Calopteron is closely resembled
by a species of moth (Pionia lycoides, Walker). This
moth varies itself in colour; in one of the varieties it has
a central black band across the wings, when it resembles
Calopteron vicinum (Deyrolle), in another this black band
3.18 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
is wanting, when it resembles C. basalis. Professor
Westwood has also pointed out to me that the resem-
blance to the beetle is still further increased in the moth
by raised lines of scales running lengthwise down the
thorax.
The phosphorescent species of Lampyridae, the fireflies,
So numerous in tropical America, are equally distasteful,
and are also much mimicked by other insects. I found
different species of cockroaches so much like them in
shape and colour that they could not be distinguished
without examination. These cockroaches, instead of
hiding in crevices and under logs like their brethren, rest
during the day exposed on the surface of leaves, in the
same manner as the fireflies they mimic.
Protective resemblances amongst insects are so nume-
rous and wide-spread, and they have been so ably
described by Bates and Wallace, that I shall only
mention a few of the most noticeable examples that
came under my attention, and which have not been
described by other authors. Amongst these was the
striking resemblance between some beetles belonging to
the Mordellidae. These, in their normal form, are
curious wedge-shaped beetles, which are common on
flowers, and leap like fleas. In some of the Nicaraguan
species the body is lengthened, and the thorax and elytra
coloured, so as to resemble wasps and flies. In the
Mordellidae the head is small, and nearly concealed
beneath the large thorax; and in the mimetic forms the
latter is coloured so as to resemble the large head and
eyes of the wasp or fly imitated. The species that
resembles a wasp moves its antennae restlessly, like the
latter insect.
Ch. XVII.] EXTRAORDINARY DISGUISES. 319
The movements, as well as the shape and colour of
the insect imitated, are mimicked. I one day observed
what appeared to be a hornet, with brown semi-trans-
parent wings and yellow antennae. It ran along the
ground vibrating its wings and antennae exactly like a
hornet, and I caught it in my net, believing it to be one.
On examining it, however, I found it to belong to a
widely different order. It was one of the Hemiptera
(Spiniger luteicornis, Walk.), and had every part coloured
like the hornet (Priocnemis) that it resembled. In its
HortNET AND MIMETIC BUG.
vibrating, coloured wing cases it departed greatly from
the normal character of the Hemiptera, and assumed
that of the hornets.
All the insects that have special means of protection,
by which they are guarded from the attacks of insecti-

320 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
vorous mammals and birds, have peculiar forms, or
strongly contrasted, conspicuous colours, and often make
odd movements that attract attention to them. There
is no attempt at concealment, but, on the contrary, they
appear to endeavour to make their presence known.
The long narrow wings of the Heliconii butterflies,
banded with black, yellow, and red, distinguish them
from all others, excepting the mimetic species. The
banded bodies of many wasps, or the rich metallic
colours of others, and their constant jerky motions,
make them very conspicuous. Bees announce their
presence by a noisy humming. The beetles of the
genus Calopteron have their wing cases curiously dis-
tended, and move them up and down, so as to attract
attention; and other species of Lampyridae are phos-
phorescent, holding out danger signals that they are not
eatable. The reason in all these cases appears to be the
same, as Mr. Wallace has shown to hold good with
banded and brightly coloured caterpillars. These are dis-
tasteful to birds, and, in consequence of their conspicuous
colours, are easily known and avoided. If they were
like other caterpillars, they might be seized and injured
before it was known they were not fit for food.
Amongst the mammals, I think the skunk is an
example of the same kind. Its white tail, laid back on
its black body, makes it very conspicuous in the dusk
when it roams about, so that it is not likely to be
pounced upon by any of the carnivora mistaking it for
other night-roaming animals. In reptiles, the beauti-
fully banded coral snake (Elaps), whose bite is deadly, is
marked as conspicuously as any noxious caterpillar with
bright bands of black, yellow, and red. I only met with
Ch. XVII.] FIORSE WOUNDED, 321
One other example amongst the vertebrata, and it was
also a reptile. In the woods around Santo Domingo
there are many frogs. Some are green or brown, and
imitate green or dead leaves, and live amongst foliage.
Others are dirty earth-coloured, and hide in holes and
under logs. All these come out only at night to feed,
and they are all preyed upon by snakes and birds. In
contrast with these obscurely coloured species, another
, little frog hops about in the daytime dressed in a bright
livery of red and blue. He cannot be mistaken for any
other, and his flaming vest and blue stockings show that
he does not court concealment. He is very abundant in
the damp woods, and I was convinced he was uneatable
as soon as I made his acquaintance and saw the happy
sense of Security with which he hopped about. I took a
few specimens home with me, and tried my fowls and
ducks with them; but none would touch them. At last,
by throwing down pieces of meat, for which there was a
great competition amongst them, I managed to entice a
young duck into snatching up one of the little frogs.
Instead of swallowing it, however, it instantly threw it
out of its mouth, and went about jerking its head as if
trying to throw off some unpleasant taste.
After travelling three leagues beyond Teustepe, we
reached, near dusk, a small house by the roadside, at
which had put up for the night a party of muleteers,
with their mules and cargoes. Our beasts were too tired
to go further, so we determined to take our chance of
finding room for our hammocks. Soon after we alighted,
as I sat on a stone near the door of the house, a gun
went off close to us, and my horse sprang forward,
Y
322 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XVII.
nearly upon me. We soon found it was our own gun,
which had been given to Rito to carry. He had strapped
it behind his saddle, and one of the other mules had come
up and rubbed against it and let it off. The poor horse
was only four feet from the muzzle, and the contents
were lodged in its loin. A large wound was made, from
which the blood flowed in a great stream, until Velasquez
got some burnt cloth and stanched it. Fortunately the
charge in the gun was a very light one, and no vital part
was touched. We arranged with the muleteers to take
our cargo to Juigalpa for us, and determined to leave
Rito behind to lead the horse gently to Pital. I may
here say that the horse, which was a very good one,
ultimately recovered. -
At this house the woman had eight children, the
eldest, I think, not more than twelve years of age. The
man who passed as her husband was the father of the
youngest only. Amongst the lower classes of Nicaragua
men and women often change their mates. In such
cases the children remain with the mother, and take
their surname from her. Baptism is considered an in-
dispensable rite, but the marriage ceremony is often
dispensed with ; and I did not notice that those who
lived together without, it suffered in the estimation of
their neighbours. The European ladies at Santo Do-
mingo were sometimes visited by the unmarried matrons
of the village, who were very indignant when they found
that there were scruples about receiving them. They
were so used to their own social observances, that they
thought those of the Europeans unwarrantable prudery.
Before turning out the mules, Rito got some limes and
squeezed the juice out upon their feet, just above the
Ch. XVII.] BITE OF MY GAL.E. 323
hoof. He did this to prevent them from being bitten by
the tarantula spider, a species of mygale that makes its
nest in the ground, and was said to abound in this
locality. Many of the mules are bitten in the feet on
the savannahs by some venomous animal. The mule
bitten immediately goes lame, and will not be cured in
less than six months, as the hoof comes off, and has to
be renewed. The natives say that the mygale is the
aggressor, that it gets on the mule's foot to bite off the
hairs to line its nest with, and that if not disturbed it
does not injure the mule; but that if the latter tries to
dislodge it, it bites immediately. I do not know whether
this story be true or not, and I had no opportunity of
examining a mygale’s nest to see if it was lined with
hairs; but Professor Westwood informs me that all that
he knows are lined with fine silk. Possibly the mules,
when rambling about, step on the spider, and are then
bitten by it. Velasquez told me that when he was a boy
he and other children used to amuse themselves by pull-
ing the mygale out of its hole, which is about a foot deep
in the ground. To get it out they fastened a small ball
of soft wax to a piece of string, and lowered it down the
hole, jerking it up and down until the spider got exaspe-
rated so far as to bury its formidable jaws in the wax,
whereby it could be drawn to the surface.
We had part of the kitchen to sleep in, and were so
tired, and getting so accustomed to sleep anywhere, that
we had a good night's rest, rose early next morning, and
were soon on the road again, leaving Rito to bring on
the lamed horse. We had a good view of the rock of
San Lorenzo, a high cliff capping a hill, and resembling
the rocks of Cuapo and Peña Blanca, but with less per-
Y 2
324 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
pendicular sides. About this part, which lay high, as
well as where we stayed the night before, there had
been rains; but on the low lands lying between the two
places there had been none. Our road again lay over
grassy plains and low, lightly-timbered hills, with very
few houses—probably not more than one in a league.
The country was now greener; they had had showers of
rain, and fine grass had sprung up. Passing as we did
from a dried-up district into one covered with verdure,
feelings were awakened akin to those with which in the
temperate zone we welcome the spring after a long winter.
As we rode on, the grass increased; there were
Swampy places in the hollows, and now and then very
muddy spots on the road. On every side the prospect was
bounded by long ranges of hills—some of them preci-
pitous, others covered to the summits with dark foliaged
trees, looking nearly black in the distance. About noon
we came in sight of the Amerrique range, which I
recognised at once, and knew that we had reached the
Juigalpa district, though still several leagues distant
from the town. Travelling on without halting we ar-
rived at the hacienda of San Diego at four o'clock.
Velasquez expected to find in the owner an old acquaint-
ance of his, and we had intended staying with him for
the night, as our mules were tired out; but on riding up
to the house we found it untenanted, the doors thrown
down, and cattle stabling in it. We pushed on again.
I thought I could make La Puerta, a hacienda three
leagues nearer Libertad than Juigalpa, and as the road
to it branched off from that to Juigalpa soon after
passing San Diego, and Velasquez had to go to the
latter place to make arrangements for getting our luggage
Ch. XVII.] TOILSOME JOURNEY. 325
sent on, I parted with him, and pushed on alone. Soon
after I crossed rather a deep river, and in a short time
my mule, which had shown symptoms of distress, became
almost unable to proceed, so that it was only with the
greatest difficulty I could get along at all. After
leading—almost dragging—it slowly for about a mile I
reached a small hut, where they told me that it was
three leagues to La Puerta, and only one to Juigalpa.
The road to Puerta was all up hill, and it was clearly
impossible for me to reach it that night, so I turned off
across the savannahs, in the direction of Juigalpa, wish-
ing I had not separated from Velasquez. My poor beast
was dragged along with much labour, and I was getting
thoroughly knocked up myself. Several small temporary
huts were passed, in which lived families that had come
down from the mountains, bringing with them their
cows to feed on the plains during the wet season. I was
tempted to put up at one of these, but all were full of
people, and I persevered on until it got quite dark.
Just then I arrived at a hacienda near the river, and en-
gaged a young fellow to get his horse and ride with me
to the town. When my mule had a companion it went
better, and being very tired I got on its back again.
It was extremely dark, and I should not have found the
road without a guide. We passed over the small plain,
where the broken statues lie, but my guide, who had
lived all his life within a mile of them, had never heard
of them. My mule fell heavily with me in a rocky pass,
but I escaped with a slight bruise. We had great trouble
to get it on its legs again, but ultimately reached
Juigalpa about nine o’clock.
Next morning I awoke with a dreadful headache and
326 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVII.
pain in my back, brought on either by the fatigue of the
day before, or by having been tempted to eat some half-
ripe guayavas when coming across the plains tired and
hungry. I lay in the hammock until ten o'clock, and
then feeling a little better, got on my mule and started.
I was so ill as to be obliged to hold on to the pommel of
my saddle, and several times to get off and lie down.
We had brought some “tiste” with us made from choco-
late and maize, and drinks of this relieved me. I at last
reached Libertad at four o’clock, and went to bed imme-
diately. Having fasted all day in place of taking medi-
cine, I rose pretty well next morning, and we rode
through the forest to the mines, reaching them at noon
on the 29th July, after an absence of nineteen days.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Division of Nicaragua into three Zones—Journey from Juigalpa to
Lake of Nicaragua–Voyage on Lake—Fresh-water Shells and
Insects—Similarity of Fresh-water productions all over the
World—Distribution of European Land and Fresh-water Shells
—Discussion of the reasons why Fresh-water productions have
Varied less than those of the Land and of the Sea.
I SHALL ask my readers to accompany me on one more
journey. I have described the great Atlantic forest that
clothes the whole of the eastern side of Nicaragua. I
have gone through the central provinces, Chontales,
Matagalpa, and Segovia; from the San Juan river, the
South-eastern boundary of Nicaragua, away to the con-
fines of Honduras on the north-west. I now propose to
leave the central provinces, amongst which we have so
long lingered, and to describe one of my journeys to those
lying between the great lakes and the Pacific.
Whilst the country to the north-east of the lakes is
mostly composed of rocks, of great age, geologically, such
as schists, quartzites, and old dolerytic rocks, with newer
but still ancient trachytes, that to the south-west of them
is composed principally of recent volcanic tufas and lavas,
the irruption of which has not yet ceased. Most of the
land, resulting from the decomposition of the tufas, is of
extreme fertility; and, therefore, we find on the Pacific
side of Nicaragua, indigo, coffee, sugar, cacao, and tobacco
growing with the greatest luxuriance.
328 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVIII.
Nicaragua is thus divided into three longitudinal zones.
The most easterly is covered by a great unbroken forest;
the principal products being india-rubber and mahogany.
The central zone is composed of grassed savannahs, on
which are bred cattle, mules, and horses. It is essentially
a pasturage country, though much maize and a little
sugar and indigo are grown in some parts. The western
zone skirts the Pacific, and is a country of fertile soil,
where all the cultivated plants and fruits of the tropics
thrive abundantly; the rich, fat land might, indeed,
with a little labour, be turned into a Garden of
Eden.
In the autumn of 1871, it became necessary for me to
proceed to Granada to empower a lawyer there to act
for us in a lawsuit in which we were engaged. Taking
Velasquez and a servant with me, I rode over to Jui-
galpa on the first of November. We had intended to go
by land to Granada; but we learnt that, through continued
wet weather, much of the low land of the delta of the
Malacatoya was impassable, so we determined to make
for the lake, and try to get a boat to take us to Los
Cocos, from which place there was a good road to
Granada. We found at Juigalpa a Libertad storekeeper,
named Señor Trinidad Ocon. He had already engaged
a boat, and courteously offered, if we could not find one
when we got to the lake, to give us a passage in his.
We started from Juigalpa the next morning; and for
the first few miles our road lay down by the river, a deep
branch of which we crossed. The alluvial plains border-
ing the river were covered with fine, though short, grass,
amongst which were some beautiful flowers. The orange
and black “sisitoté” (Icterus pectoralis, Wagl.) flew in
Ch. XVIII.] EMBARK TO CROSS THE LAKE. 329
Small flocks amongst the bushes; and the “sanaté ‘’
(Quiscalus) was busy amongst the cattle. Their usual
plan of operations is for a pair of them to accompany one
of the cattle, one on each side, watching for grasshoppers
and other insects that are frightened up by the browsing
animal. They keep near the head, and fly after the
insects that break cover, but do not encroach on each
other's side.
We stopped at a little hacienda perched on the top of
a small hill. It was called “El Candelera,” and was a
Small cattle station, surrounded by plains. We now
crossed the valley, and made for a range of hills between
us and the lake. The ascent was steep and rocky; and
it took us two hours to get to the top. We then saw
the great lake, like a sea lying spread out before us, but
still at a considerable distance. The descent was very
steep, and we had to make long detours to avoid pre-
cipitous ravines. At last we reached level ground; but
it was even worse than the mountain roads to travel,
being in many parts wet and swampy. After missing
our way, and having to retrace our steps for more
than a mile, we reached Santo Claro, a cattle hacienda,
at dusk. Here we found Señor Ocon’s boat, but there
was no other. The boatmen said we must embark at
once. We made an arrangement with a man who had
accompanied Ocon to take our mules to San Ubaldo, as
we proposed to return that way. The boat was Small,
and there were seven of us; so that with our saddles and
luggage we were much cramped for room.
They poled the boat for two miles down a small river
that emptied into the lake; but just before we reached it,
the boatmen stopped and said it was too rough to proceed
330 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVIII.
that night, and notwithstanding our remonstrances they
tied the boat to some bushes. Our cramped position was
very irksome ; the river was bordered by Swamps, SO
that we could not land, and thousands of mosquitoes
came about and rendered sleep impossible. About mid-
night, the moon rose, and two hours later we prevailed
on the boatmen to set sail; but, notwithstanding their
excuse about it being too rough, there was so little wind
that we made slow progress. At eight we went on shore,
where there was a hut built close by the lake below
Masaya. The lake was flooded, and the water had been
over the floor of the hut during the night. All around
were swamps, and the mosquitoes were intolerable. We
could buy no food at the miserable shanty, and Soon set
sail again; a little more wind afterwards springing up,
we reached Los Cocos at eleven o’clock. There is a
small village at this place, where we got breakfast
cooked, and did justice to it. We hired horses to take
us to Granada; but as the road for a league further on
was overflown by the lake, we went on in the boat, and
a boy took the horses round to meet us, swimming them
across the worst places.
Glad we were to get on horseback again, and to canter
along a hard Sandy road, instead of sitting cramped up
in a little boat, with the sun's rays pouring down on us.
The path led amongst the bushes, and was sometimes
overflowed; but the soil was sandy, and there was no
mud. All the beach was submerged, or we should have
ridden along it. The last time I had passed by this part
of the lake was in July, 1868. Then the waters of the
lake were low, and we rode along the sandy beach, black
in some parts with titanic iron sand. The beach re-
Ch. XVIII.] FRESH-WATER ANIMAT.S. 33}
sembled that of a sea-coast, with the waves rolling in
upon it, and to the south-east the water extended to the
horizon. Along the shore were strewn shells thrown up
by the surf; and on examining them, I found them
all to belong to well-known ołd-world genera—Unio,
Planorbis, Ancylus, and Ampulſaria.
On this journey, all the beach was, as I have said,
covered with water, and I saw no shells; but in the
pools on the road were water-beetles swimming about,
and these showed a surprising resemblance to the water-
beetles of Europe. Gyrinidae swam round and round in
mazy circles; Dytiscidae came up to the surface for a
moment, and dived down again to the depths below with
a globule of air glistening like a diamond. Amongst the
vegetation at the bottom and sides of the pools Hydro-
philidae crawled about, just as in ponds in England.
Not only were those old-world familiars there, but they
were represented by species belonging to the typical
genera—Gyrinus, Colymbetes, and Hydrophilus. Over
these pools flew dragon-flies, whose larval stages are
passed in the water, closely resembling others all over
the world. All the land fauna was strikingly different
from that of other regions; but the water fauna was as
strikingly similar.
. The sameness of fresh-water productions all over the
world is not confined to animal life, but extends to plants
also. Alph. de Candolle has remarked that in large
groups of plants which have many terrestrial and only a
few aquatic species the latter have a far wider distribu-
tion than the former; and it is well known to botanists
that many fresh-water and marsh plants have an im-
mense range over continents, extending even to the most
332 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XVIII.
remote islands.” The close affinities of fresh-water
animals and plants have been noticed by many natu-
ralists. Darwin saw with surprise, in Brazil, the simi-
larity of the fresh-water insects, shells, &c., and the
dissimilarity of the surrounding terrestrial beings com-
pared with those of Britain. † Dr. D. Sharp informs
me that water-beetles undoubtedly present the same
types all over the world. He believes there is no
family of Coleoptera in which tropical or extra-tropical
species so closely resemble one another as in the
Dytiscidae. Cybister is found in Europe, Asia, Africa,
Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and North America ;
and the species have a very wide range. Dr. Sharp
remarks that this wide distribution and great simi-
larity of the Dytiscidae is of special interest when we
recollect that they are nothing but Carabidae fitted for
Swimming, and yet that the Carabidae are one of the
groups in which the tropical members differ widely from
the temperate ones.
Eor following up this branch of inquiry the study of
the distribution of the mollusca offers special advantages.
There are numerous marine, fresh-water, and terrestrial
species and genera. They are slow moving; they have
not the means of transporting themselves great distances,
like insects, for example, that may easily and often pass
over arms of the sea, or fly from one country to another.
Their shells are the commonest of fossils; and in islands
such as Madeira and St. Helena, where we have abundant
remains of extinct land shells, there are few, if any, of
extinct animals of other classes or of plants.
Taking the shells of Europe, we find a remarkable dif-
* Darwin, “Origin of Species,” p. 417. f Ibid. p. 414.
Ch. XVIII.] LAND AND FRESH-WATER MOLLUSKS. 333
ference in the distribution of the land and fresh-
water species. According to Mr. Lovell Reeve, who has
specially studied this question, out of many hundreds of
land mollusks inhabiting the Caucasian province at its
centre in Hungary and Austria, only ninety extend to the
British Isles, and of these thirty-five do not reach Scot-
land. Upwards of two hundred species of Clausilia are
to be found in the centre of the province, and of these
only four reach Britain, and only one Scotland. Out of
five hundred and sixty species of Helix inhabiting the
Caucasian province, there are but twenty-four in Britain.
Whilst the distribution of the terrestrial mollusks of
Europe is thus restricted in range, though the species are
numerous, the fresh-water shells are few in species, but
of wide distribution. Quoting again from Mr. Reeve :—
Of the Lymnasacea “there are not six species, it may be
safely stated, in all Europe, more than there are in
Britain. They have no particular centre of creation.
There is no evidence to show whether the alleged pro-
genitors of our British species were created in Siberia,
Hungary, or Thibet. There is scarcely any variation
either in the form or number of the species in those
remote localities. Of Planorbis scarcely more than
fifteen species inhabit the whole Caucasian province, and
we have eleven of them in Britain.”—“Of Physa and
Lymnasa, it is extremely doubtful whether there are any
species throughout the province more than we have in
Britain. Neither of Ancylus, which lives attached,
limpet-like, to sticks and stones, and has very limited
facilities of migration, are there any species throughout
the province more than we have in Britain.””
* Lovell Reeve, “British Land and Fresh-Water Mollusks,” p. 255.
334 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVIII.
The wide distribution of species inhabiting fresh water
compared with those living on land has not escaped the
comprehensive mind of Darwin, and in explanation of the
fact, he has shown how fresh-water shells may be carried
from pool to pool, or from one river or lake to others
many miles distant, sticking to the feet of water-fowl, or
to the elytra of water-beetles. Whilst the distribution of
water mollusks may be thus accounted for, it does not
explain the greater variety and more restricted range of
the land species. They have at least equal means of
dispersion, compared with the sluggish, mud-loving water-
shells of our ponds and ditches. Why should the one
have varied so much and the other so little P. We might
at first sight have expected the very reverse, on the
theory of natural selection. In large lakes and in river
systems isolated from others, we might look for the con-
ditions most favourable for the variation of species, and
for the preservation of the improved varieties.
It is evident that there must have been less variation,
or that the varieties that arose have not been preserved.
I think it probable that the variation of fresh-water
species of animals and plants has been constantly checked
by the want of continuity of lakes and rivers in time and
space. In the great oscillation of the surface of the
earth, of which geologists find so many proofs, every
fresh-water area has again and again been destroyed.
It is not so with the ocean—it is continuous; and as one
part was elevated and laid dry, the species could retreat
to another. On the great continents the land has pro-
bably never been totally submerged at any one time; it
also is continuous over great areas, and as one part
became uninhabitable, the land species could in most
Ch. XVIII.] EXPLANATION OF FRESH-WATER FORMS. 335
cases retreat to another. But for the inhabitants of lakes
and rivers there was no retreat, and whenever the sea
overflowed the land, vast numbers of fresh-water species
must have been destroyed. A fresh-water fauna gave
place to a marine one, and the former was annihilated so
far as that area was concerned. When the land again
rose from below the Sea, the marine fauna was not
destroyed—it simply retired farther back.
There is every reason to believe that the production of
species is a slow process, and if fresh-water areas have
not continued as a rule through long geological periods,
we can see how variation has been constantly checked by
the destruction, first in one part, then in another, of all
the fresh-water species; and on these places being again
occupied by fresh water they were colonised by species
from other parts of the world. Thus species of restricted
range were always exposed to destruction because their
habitat was temporary and their retreat impossible, and
only families of wide distribution could be preserved.
Hence I believe it is that the types of fresh-water pro-
ductions are few and world-wide, whilst that the sea has
mollusks innumerable, and the land great variety and
wealth of species. Their variety is in the ratio of the
continuity of their habitats in time and space.
It follows also, from the same reasoning, that old and
wide-spread types are more likely to be preserved in
fresh-water areas than on land or in the sea, for the
destruction of wide-ranging species is effected more
by the competition of improved varieties than by phy-
sical causes; so that when variation is most checked
old forms will longest survive. Therefore I think it
is that amongst fishes we find some old geological types
336 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XVIII.
still preserved in a few of the large rivers of the
world. -
To illustrate more clearly the theory I have advanced,
I will take a supposititious case. In the southern states of
America there is reason to suppose that since the glacial
period there has been a great variation in the species
of the fresh-water mollusk genus Melania, and in dif-
ferent rivers there are distinct groups of species. Now
let us suppose that the glacial period was to return, and
that the icy covering, gradually thickening in the north,
should push down southward as it did once before. The
great lakes of North America would be again filled with
ice, and every one of their inhabitants destroyed. As
the ice advanced southward, the inhabitants of one river-
system after another would be annihilated, and many
groups of Melania entirely destroyed. On the retreat of
the ice again the rivers and lakes would reappear, but
the varieties of animals that had been developed in them
would not, and their places would be taken by aquatic
forms from other areas, so that the number of species
would be thereby greatly reduced, and wide-spreading
forms would be freed from the competition of many
improved varieties.
Viewed in this light, the similarity of fresh-water pro-
ductions all over the world, instead of being a difficulty
in the way of the acceptance of the theory of natural
selection, becomes a strong argument in favour of its
truth; for we perceive that the number of marine, terres-
trial, and fresh-water animals is in proportion to the
more or less continuous development that was possible
under the different conditions under which they lived.
The same line of argument might be used to explain
Ch. XVIII.] CONTINUITY OF LAND AND AIR. 337
the much greater variety in some classes of terrestrial
animals than in others. The land has often been sub-
merged in geological history, and the classes that were
best fitted to escape the impending catastrophes would
be most likely to preserve the varieties that had been
developed. The atmosphere has always been con-
tinuous, and the animals that could use it as a high-
way had great advantages over those that could not, and
so we find the slow-moving terrestrial mollusks few in
number compared with the multitudinous hosts of
strong-flying insects; similarly, the mammals are far
out-numbered by the birds of the air, that can pass
from island to island, and from country to country,
unstopped by mighty rivers or wide arms of the sea.
CHAPTER XIX.
Iguanas and Lizards—Granada—Politics—Revolution—Cacao Culti-
vation—Masaya-—The Lake of Masaya—The Volcano of Masaya.
— Origin of the Lake Basin.
THE road passed along a sandy ridge only a little
elevated above the waters of the lake, and the ground on
both sides was submerged. As we travelled on we were
often startled by hearing sudden plunges into the water
not far from us, but our view was so obstructed by
bushes that it was some time before we discovered the
cause. At last we found that the noise was made by
large iguana lizards, some of them three feet long, and
very bulky, dropping from the branches of trees, on
which they lay stretched, into the water. These iguanas
are extremely ugly, but are said to be delicious eating,
the Indians being extremely fond of them. The Carca
Indians, who live in the forest seven miles from Santo
Domingo, travel every year to the great lake to catch
iguanas, which abound on the dry hills near it. They
seize them as they lie on the branches of the trees, with
a loop at the end of a long stick. They then break the
middle toe of each foot, and tie the feet together, in
pairs, by the broken toes, afterwards sewing up the
mouth of the poor reptiles, and carrying them in this
state back to their houses in the forest, where they are
Ch. XIX.] LIZARDS. 339
kept alive until required for food. The racoon-like
“pisoti” is also fond of them, but cannot so easily
catch them. He has to climb every tree, and then,
unless he can surprise them asleep, they drop from the
branch to the ground and scuttle off to another tree. I
Once saw a solitary pisoti hunting for iguanas amongst
Some bushes near the lake where they were very
numerous, but during the quarter of an hour that I
watched him, he never caught one. It was like the
game of “puss in the corner.” He would ascend a small
tree on which there were several; but down they would
drop when he had nearly reached them, and rush off to
another tree. Master “Pisoti,” however, seemed to
take all his disappointments with the greatest coolness,
and continued the pursuit unflaggingly. Doubtless expe-
rience had taught him that his perseverance would ulti-
mately be rewarded : that sooner or later he would
Surprise a corpulent iguana fast asleep on some branch,
or too late in dropping from his resting-place. In the
forest I always saw the “pisoti” hunting in large
bands, from which an iguana would have small chance
of escape, for some were searching along the ground
whilst others ranged over the branches of the trees.
Other tree lizards also try to escape their enemies by
dropping from great heights to the ground. I was once
standing near a large tree, the trunk of which rose fully
fifty feet before it threw off a branch, when a green
Anolis dropped past my face to the ground, followed by
a long green snake that had been pursuing it amongst
the foliage above, and had not hesitated to precipitate
itself after its prey. The lizard alighted on its feet and
hurried away, the Snake fell like a coiled-up watch-
Z 2
340 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIX.
spring, and opened out directly to continue the pursuit;
but, on the spur of the moment, I struck at it with a
switch and prevented it. I regretted afterwards not
having allowed the chase to continue and watched the
issue, but I doubt not that the lizard, active as it was,
would have been caught by the swift-gliding snake, as
several specimens of the latter that I opened contained.
lizards.
Lizards are also preyed upon by many birds, and I
have taken a large one from the stomach of a great
white hawk with its wings, and tail barred with black
(Leucoptermis ghiesbreghā) that sits up on the trees in
the forcst quietly watching for them. Their means of
defence are small, nor are they rapid enough in their
movements to escape from their enemies by flight, and
so they depend principally for their protection on their . .
means of concealment. The different species of Anolis
can change their colour from a bright green to a dark
brown, and so assimilate themselves in appearance to the
foliage or bark of trees on which they lie; but another
tree-lizard, not uncommon on the banks of the rivers, is
not only of a beautiful green colour, but has foliaceous
expansions on its limbs and body, so that even when
amongst the long grass it looks like a leafy shoot that
has fallen from the trees above. I do not know of any
lizard that enjoys impunity from attack by the secretion .
of any acrid or poisonous fluid from its skin, like the
little red and blue frog that I have already described;
but I was told of one that was said to be extremely
venomous. As, however, besides being Said to give off
from the pores of its skin poisonous Secretion, it was
described to be of an inconspicuous brown colour, and to
Ch. XIX.] FOOD OF MONKEYS. 341
hide under logs, I should require some confirmation of
the story by an experienced naturalist before believing it,
for all my experience has led me to the opinion that
any animal endowed with special means of protection
from its enemies is always either conspicuously coloured,
or in other ways attracts attention, and does not seek
concealment.
About four o’clock we reached the city of Granada,
and, passing along some wide streets and across a large
Square, found the hotel of Mons. Mestayer, where we
engaged rooms for the night. The hotel, like most of
the houses in the city, was built, in the Spanish style,
around a large court-yard, in the centre of which was a
flower-garden. Madame Mestayer was very fond of
pets, and had macaws and parrots, a tame Squirrel, a
young white-faced monkey (Cebus albifrons), and several
Small long-haired Mexican dogs. I was interested in
watching the monkey examining all the loose bark and
curled-up leaves on a large fig-tree in Search of insects.
In this and other individuals of this species, a great
variety of countenances could be distinguished, and I could
easily have picked my own out of all the others I have
seen by the expression of its face. I was told that the
one in the garden at Mons. Mestayer's did not touch the
figs on the tree, and I believe it ; the Cebus is much
more of an animal than a vegetable feeder, whilst the
spider-monkeys (Ateles) live principally on fruits.
Granada was entirely burnt down by Walker and his
filibusters in 1856, and the present city is built on the
ruins of that founded by Hernandez de Cordova in 1522.
The streets are well laid out at right angles to each
342 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIX.
other, and there are many large churches, some of them
in ruins. In one of the latter a company of mounte-
banks performed every evening, but the circumstance
did not seem to excite surprise or comment.
The streets are built in terraces, quite level for about
fifty yards, then with a steep-paved declivity leading to
another level portion. One has to be careful in riding
down from one level to another, as horses and mules are
very liable to slip on the smooth pavement. The houses
are built of “adobes’’ or sun-dried bricks. The walls
are plastered and whitewashed, and the roofs and floors
tiled. They are mostly of one storey, and the rooms
Surrounding the court-yards have doors opening both to
the inside and to the street.
There are no manufactories in Granada, but many
wholesale stores, kept by merchants, who import goods
from England and the United States, and export the
produce of the country—indigo, hides, coffee, cacao,
sugar, Indian rubber, &c. Many of these merchants
are very wealthy; but all deal retail as well as whole-
Sale; and the reputed wealthiest man of the town asked
me if I did not want to buy a few boxes of candles.
The highest ambition of every one seems to be to keep a
shop, excepting when the revolutionary fever breaks out
about every seven or eight years, when, for a few months,
business is at a stand-still, and the population is divided
into two parties, alternately pursuing and being pursued,
but seldom engaging in a real battle.
There was one of these outbreaks whilst I was in
Nicaragua, and the whole country was in a state of civil
war for more than four months, nearly all the able-
bodied men being drafted into the armies that were
Ch. XIX.] ABSENCE OF PATRIOTISM. 343
raised, but I believe there were not a score of men
killed on the field of battle during the whole time; the
town of Juigalpa was taken and retaken without any one
reeiving a scratch. The usual course pursued was for
the two armies to manoeuvre about until one thought it
was weaker than the other, when it immediately took to
fight. Battles were decided without a shot being fired,
excepting after one side had run away. -
Of patriotism I never saw a symptom in Central
America, nothing but selfish partisanship, Willing at any
moment to set the country in a blaze of war if there
was only a prospect of a little spoil from the flames.
The states of Central America are republics in name
only; in reality, they are tyrannical oligarchies. They
have excellent constitutions and laws on paper, but both
their statesmen and their judges are corrupt, with Some
honourable exceptions, I must admit, but not enough to
stem the current of abuse. Of real liberty there is none.
The party in power is able to control the elections, and
to put their partisans into all the municipal and other
offices. Some of the Presidents have not hesitated to
throw their political opponents into prison at the time
of an election, and I heard of one well-authenticated
instance where an elector was placed, uncovered, in the
middle of one of the plazas, with his arms stretched out
to their full extent and each thumb thrust down into the
barrel of an upright musket, and kept a few hours in
the blazing sun until he agreed to vote according to the
wish of the party in power. A change of rulers can only
be effected by a revolution; with all the machinery of a
republic, the will of the people can only be known by
the issue of a civil war. -
344 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIX.
With high-sounding phrases of the equality of man,
the lower orders are kept in a state almost approaching
to serfdom. The poor Indians toil and spin, and
cultivate the ground, being almost the only producers.
Yet, in the revolutionary outbreaks, they are driven
about like cattle, and forced into the armies that are
raised. Central America declared its independence ºf
Spain in 1823, and constituted itself a republic, under
the name of the United States of Central America. The
confederacy, which consisted of Guatemala, San Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, was broken up in
1840, when each of the States became an independent
republic. Ever since, revolutionary outbreaks have been
periodical, and the States, with the exception of Costa
Rica, have steadily decreased in wealth and produce.
It would be ungenerous of me, in this condemnation
of the political parties of Central America, not to state
that there are many individuals who view with alarm
and shame the decadence of their country. Such, how-
ever, is the state of public opinion, that their voices are
unheard, or listened to with indifference. There seems to
be some radical incapacity in the Latin races to compre-
hend what we consider true political economy. The will
of the majority is not the law of the land, but the will
of the strongest in arms. They cannot comprehend that
a republic has no more divine right than a monarchy;
that a country having an hereditary sovereign at its
head, if it is governed in consonance with the wishes of
the greatest number of its inhabitants, is freer than a
republic where a minority rules by force of arms. They
make a principle out of what is a mere detail of govern-
ment—whether the chief of the State shall be elective or
Ch. XIX.] GRANADA. 345
hereditary—but the great fundamental principle of good
government, namely that the will of the majority shall
be the law of the land, is trampled under foot and treated
as the dream of an enthusiast.
The environs of Granada are very pretty; it is situated
only a mile from the lake, and a few miles lower down
the sleeping volcano of Mombacho juts boldly out, rising
to a height of nearly 5,000 feet, and clothed to the very
Summit with dark perennial verdure. The cacao of
Granada and Rivas is said to be amongst the finest
grown, and there are many large plantations of it. The
wild cacao grows in the forests of the Atlantic slope,
and when cultivated it still requires shade to thrive
luxuriantly. This is provided at first by plantain trees,
afterwards by the coral tree, a species of Erythrina, called
by the natives Cacao madre, or the Cacao's mother, on
account of the fostering shade it affords the cacao tree.
The coral tree rises to a height of about forty feet, and
when in flower, at the beginning of April, is one mass of
bright crimson flowers, fairly dazzling the eyes of the
beholder when the sun is shining on it.
One of the principal courts of law is held at Granada,
and whilst we were there a priest was being tried for
having seduced his own niece. He was afterwards con-
victed, and, to show the moral torpidity of the people, I
may mention that his only punishment was banishment
to Greytown, where he appeared to mix in Nicaraguan
Society as if he had not a spot on his character.
Having finished our business in Granada, we started
for Masaya, where I wished to consult a lawyer, Senhor
Rafael Blandino, who most deservedly bears a very high
346 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIX.
character in Nicaragua for probity and ability. We had
a difficulty in obtaining horses, and did not get away
until noon. The road was a good one, having been
made by the late President, Señor Fernando Guzman,
who seems to have done what little lay in his power to
develope the resources of the country. The soil was
entirely composed of volcanic tufas, and was covered
with fine grass; but there were no springs or brooks,
all the moisture sinking into the porous ground. Lizards
were numerous, and on damp spots on the road there
were many fine butterflies, most of them of different
species from those of Chontales.
At four o'clock we entered Masaya, and passed down
a long road bordered with Indian huts and gardens.
The town is said to contain about 15,000 inhabitants,
nine-tenths of whom are Indians. The town covers a
great space of ground, as the Indian houses are each
surrounded by a garden or orchard ; they stand back
from the road, and are almost hidden amongst the trees.
There was no water when I visited Masaya, excepting
what was brought up from the lake, which lies more
than 300 feet below the town, surrounded, excepting on
the western side, by precipitous cliffs, down which three
or four rocky paths have been cut. Up these, all day
long, and most of the night, women and girls are carry-
ing water in Indian earthenware gourd-shaped jars,
which they balance on cushions on their heads, or sling
in nets behind their backs. No men or boys above ten
years of age carry water, and the women seemed to have
all the labour to do. I believe it would have been im-
possible to find ten men at work in Masaya at any one
time.
Ch. XIX.] TAIKE OF MASAYA. 347
I spent the next day exploring around Masaya, as I
was greatly interested with the geological structure of
the country. One of the paths down to the lake has
been made passable for animals, which have to be taken
down to drink. I rode my horse down, but in the
steepest part he slipped on to his side, and I was content
to lead him the rest of the way. The scene was one
which is only possible in a half-civilized tropical land.
Women, with the scantiest of clothing, or less, were
washing linen, standing up to their waist in the water
amongst the rocks, on which they thumped the clothes
to be eleansed, laughing and chatting to each other
incessantly. Men with mules and horses were bathing
themselves and their animals at a small sandy beach,
and girls were carrying off great jars of water, which
they obtained further down, where the water was less
tainted with the ablutions going on. Great rocks, that
had fallen from the cliffs above, lined the shore; and
amongst these grew many shrubs and plants new to me.
The cliffs themselves were, in some parts, green with
lovely maiden-hair ferns, belonging to three different
species.
On the opposite shore rises the cone of the volcano
of Masaya, and the streams of lava that have flowed
down to the lake and covered the old precipitous cliffs
on that side are plainly visible. The cliff encircles the
whole lake, excepting where concealed by the recent lava
overflow. At the time of the conquest of Nicaragua, in
1522, the volcano of Masaya was in a state of activity.
The credulous Spaniards believed the fiery, molten mass
at the bottom of the crater to be liquid gold, and through
great danger, amongst the Smoke and fumes, were
348 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIX.
lowered down it until, with an iron chain and bucket,
they could reach the fiery mass, when the bucket was
melted from the chain, and the intrepid explorers, whose
hearts avarice had hardened to adamant, were drawn up
half dead from amongst the fumes. Since then there
have been several eruptions; and so late as 1857 it
threw out volumes of smoke, and probably ashes. The
whole country is volcanic. For scores of miles every
rock is trachytic, and the earth decomposing tufas.
The lake itself is like an immense crater with its per-
pendicular cliffs. I spent some time in making an ac-
STRATA AT MASAYA,
curate section of the strata as exposed in the rocky paths
leading down to the water. The whole section exposed
is 348 feet in height from the surface of the lake to the
top of the undulating plain on which Masaya is built.
This measurement was kindly given to me by . Mr.
Simpson, an enterprising American engineer engaged in

Ch. XIX.] TAKE OF MASAYA. - 349
erecting a steam pump to raise the water for the supply
of the town. At the bottom of this section are seen great
cliffs of massive trachyte (No 1. in section). Above this
is an ash bed, then a bed of breccia containing fragments of
trachyte, then another bed of cinders, which looks like a
rough sandstone, but is pisolitic, and contains pebbles of
the size of a bean. This bed is surmounted by one that
possesses great interest (No. 5 in Section). It is composed
of fine tufa, in which is imbedded a great number of large
angular fragments of trachyte, some of which are more
than three feet in diameter. It is the last bed but one,
the surface being composed of lightly coherent strata of
tufaceous ash, worn into an undulating surface by the
action of the elements. **.
I believe there is but one explanation possible of the
origin of these strata ; namely, that the great bed of
trachyte at the base is an ancient lava bed; and that
this, perhaps, long after it was consolidated, was covered
by beds of ashes and scoriae thrown out by a not far
distant volcano, and that at last a great convulsion broke
through the trachyte bed and hurled the fragments over
the country along with dense volumes of dust and ashes.
The angular blocks of trachyte imbedded in the stratum
No. 5 in section are exactly the same in composition as
the great bed below, and in them. I think we see the
fragments of the rocks that once filled the perpendicular-
sided hollow now occupied by the lake. Looking at the
vast force required to hollow out the basin of the lake, by
blasting out the whole contents into the air, distributing
them over the country, so that they have not been piled
up in a volcanic cone round the vent, but lie in compa-
ratively level beds, I cannot expect that this explanation
350 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIX.
will be readily received; and I should not myself have
advanced it if I could in any other way account for the
phenomena. Fortunately, within historical times, there
have been volcanic outbursts, not of such magnitude,
certainly, as was required to excavate the basin of the
lake of Masaya, but still of sufficient extent to show
that such an origin is not beyond the limits of
possibility.
Thus in the same line of volcanic energy, not far from
the boundary line of the states of Nicaragua and San
Salvador, there was an eruption of the volcano of Cosa-
guina, on the 20th of January, 1835, when dense volumes
of dust and ashes, and fragments of rocks, were hurled up
in the air and deposited over the country around. The
vast quantity of material thrown out by this explosion
may be gathered from the fact that one hundred and
twenty miles away, near the volcano of San Miguel, the
dust was so thick that it was quite dark from four o'clock
in the evening until nearly moon of the next day; and
even at that distance there was deposited a layer of fine
ashes four inches deep. The noise of the explosion was
heard at the city of Guatemala, four hundred miles to the
westward, and at Jamaica, eight hundred miles to the
north-east.
In St. Vincent, in the West Indies, there was a great
eruption on April 27th, 1812, which continued for three
days, and was heard six hundred and thirty miles away
on the llanos of Caraccas. This great eruption has been
So graphically narrated by Canon Kingsley that I shall
once more quote from his eloquent pages. “That single
explosion relieved an interior pressure upon the crust of
the earth which had agitated Sea and land from the
Ch. XIX.] GREAT IFARTHQUAKE. * 351
Azores to the West Indian islands, the coasts of
Venezuela, the Cordillera of New Granada, and the
valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio. For nearly two
years the earthquakes had continued, when they culmi-
nated in one great tragedy, which should be read at
length in the pages of Humboldt. On March 26th, 1812,
when the people of Caraccas were assembled in the
churches, beneath a still and blazing sky, one minute of
earthquake sufficed to bury, amid the ruins of churches
and houses, nearly ten thousand Souls. The same earth-
quake wrought terrible destruction along the whole
line of the northern Cordilleras, and was felt even at
Santa Fé de Bogota and Honda, one hundred and eighty
leagues from Caraccas. But the end was not yet. While
the wretched survivors of Caraccas were dying of fever
and starvation, and wandering inland to escape from
ever-renewed earthquake shocks, among villages and
farms which, ruined like their own city, could give them
no shelter, the almost forgotten volcano of St. Vincent
was muttering in suppressed wrath. It had thrown out
no lava since 1718, if, at least, the eruption spoken of by
Moreau de Jonnés took place in the Souffrière. Accord-
ing to him, with a terrific earthquake, clouds of ashes
were driven into the air, with violent detonations from
a mountain situated at the eastern end of the island.
When the eruption had ceased, it was found that the
whole mountain had disappeared. Now there is no
eastern end to St. Vincent nor any mountain on the east
coast, and the Souffrière is at the northern end. It is
impossible, meanwhile, that the wreck of such a mountain
should not have left traces visible and notorious to this
day. May not the truth be, that the Souffière had once
3
4.
52 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XIX.
a lofty cone, which was blasted away in 1718, leaving
the present crater-ring of cliffs and peaks; and that thus
may be explained the discrepancies in the accounts of its
height, which Mr. Scrope gives as 4,940 feet, and Hum-
boldt and Dr. Davy at 3,000, a measurement which
seems to me to be more probably correct? The moun-
tain is said to have been slightly active in 1785. In
1812, its old crater had been for some years (and is now)
a deep blue lake, with walls of rock around, 800
feet in height, reminding one traveller (Dr. Davy)
of the lake of Albano. But for twelve months it had
given warning, by frequent earthquake shocks, that it
had its part to play in the great subterranean battle
between rock and steam ; and on the 27th April, 1812,
the battle began.
“A negro boy—he is said to be still alive in St. Vin-
cent—was herding cattle on the mountain-side. A stone
fell near him, and then another. He fancied that other
boys were pelting him from the cliffs above, and began
throwing stones in return. But the stones fell thicker,
and among them one and then another too large to have
been thrown by human hand. And the poor fellow woke
up to the fact that not a boy but the mountain was
throwing stones at him ; and that the column of black
cloud which was rising from the crater above was not
harmless vapours, but dust, and ash, and stone. He
turned and ran for his life, leaving the cattle to their
fate, while the steam mitrailleuse of the Titans—to
which all man’s engines of destruction are but pop-guns
—roared on for three days and nights, covering the
greater part of the island in ashes, burying crops, break-
ing branches off the trees, and spreading ruin from which
Ch. XIX.] GREAT ERUPTION OF ST. VINCENT. 353
several estates never recovered; and so the 30th of
April dawned in darkness which might be felt.
“Meanwhile, on the same day, to change the scene of
the campaign two hundred and ten leagues, ‘a distance,’
as Humboldt says, ‘equal to that between Vesuvius and
Paris,’ the inhabitants, not only of Caraccas, but of
Calabozo, situate in the midst of the Llanos, over a space
of four thousand square leagues, were terrified by a sub-
terranean noise, which resembled frequent discharges of
the loudest cannon. It was accompanied by no shock,
and, what is very remarkable, was as loud on the coast
as at eighty leagues inland; and at Caraccas, as well as
at Calabozo, preparations were made to put the place in
defence against an enemy who seemed to be advancing
with heavy artillery.’ They might as well have copied
the St. Vincent herd boy, and thrown their stones, too, at
the Titans; for the noise was, there can be no doubt,
nothing else than the final explosion in St. Vincent far
away. The same explosion was heard in Venezuela, the
same at Martinique and Guadaloupe; but there, too,
there were no earthquake shocks. The volcanoes of the
two French islands lay quiet, and left their English
brother to do the work. On the same day, a stream of
lava rushed down from the mountain, reached the sea in
four hours, and then all was over. The earthquakes
which had shaken for two years a sheet of the earth’s
surface larger than half Europe were stilled by the
eruption of this single vent.
“The strangest fact about this eruption was, that the
mountain did not make use of its old crater. The ori-
ginal vent must have become so jammed and consolidated,
in the few years between 1785 and 1812, that it could
A. A
354 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA, [Ch. XIX.
not be reopened, even by a steam-force the vastness of
which may be guessed at from the vastness of the area
which it had shaken for two years. So when the erup-
tion was over it was found that the old crater-lake,
incredible as it may seem, remained undisturbed, as far
as has been ascertained. But close to it, and separated
only by a knife-edge of rock some 700 feet in height, and
So narrow that, as I was assured by one who had seen it,
it is dangerous to crawl along it ; a second crater, nearly
as large as the first, had been blasted out, the bottom of
which, in like manner, is now filled with water.
“The day after the explosion, “Black Sunday,” gave
a proof, but no measure, of the enormous force which
had been exerted. Eighty miles to windward lies Bar-
badoes. All Saturday a heavy cannonading had been
heard to the eastward. The English and French fleets
were surely engaged. The soldiers were called out, the
batteries manned, but the cannonade died away, and all
went to bed in wonder. On the 1st of May the clocks
struck six; but the sun did not, as usual in the tropics,
answer to the call. The darkness was still intense, and
grew more intense as the morning wore on. A slow and
silent rain of impalpable dust was falling over the whole
island.
“The trade wind had fallen dead; the everlasting
roar of the surf was gone; and the only noise was the
crashing of the branches Snapped by the weight of the
clammy dust. About one o’clock the veil began to lift,
a lurid sunlight stared in from the horizon, but all was
black over head. Gradually the dust-cloud drifted
away; the island saw the sun once more, and saw itself
inches deep in black, and in this case fertilizing, dust.
Ch. XIX.] GREAT ERUPTION OF ST. VINCENT. 355
“Those who will recollect that Barbadoes is eighty
miles to windward of St. Vincent, and that a strong
breeze from east-north-east is usually blowing from the
former island to the latter, will be able to imagine, not to
measure, the force of an explosion which must have
blown the dust several miles into the air above the
region of the trade-wind. Whether into a totally calm
stratum or into that still higher one in which the heated
South-west wind is hurrying continually from the tropics
toward the pole.” .
I have quoted this graphic account of the great
volcanic eruption of St. Vincent in 1812 from Canon
Ringsley's delightful work to impress on my readers, in
more eloquent language than I can command, the fact of
great explosions having taken place in recent times
similar in character, though much inferior in extent
and force, to that by which I believe the great basin of
the Lake of Masaya and similar basins in the same and
adjoining Pacific provinces have been blasted out. I do
not shut my eyes to the fact that great as was the force
in operation in 1812 at St. Vincent, that necessary to
excavate the great chasm at Masaya was incomparably
greater. No one is more disinclined than I am to invoke
the aid of greater natural forces in former times than are
now in existence. But I believe there is good reason to
believe that at the close of the glacial period volcanic
energy was much more intense than now. So strained
is the earth's crust at some parts that it is surmised that
even a great difference in the pressure of the atmosphere
such as occurs during a cyclone, may be sufficient to bring
on an earthquake or a volcanic eruption already immi-
* “At Last,” by Charles Kingsley, vol. i. p. 90.
A. A 2
356 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. L.Ch. XIX.
ment. Whether this be so or not there can be no doubt
that at the melting away of the ice of the glacial period
there was an enormous change in the strains on the
earth’s crust. Ice that had been piled up mountains
high at the poles and along the chain of the Andes all
through tropical America melted away and ran down to
the ocean beds. This great transference of weight could
not have been accomplished without many rendings of
the earth’s crust and many outpourings of lava and vol-
canic outbursts. Let us reflect, too, that not only was an
enormous mass of matter, before lying over the poles, re-
moved nearer the equator, and many mountain chains
relieved of the ice of thousands and tens of thousands of
years, but that there must have been an actual change in
the earth’s centre of gravity. For all our experience
shows that the ice was more developed on some meridians
than others, that it probably nowhere in the whole world
lay so thick as along the American continents, and every-
where it must have been greater over the land than over
the sea; and when it assumed its liquid form, and arranged
itself freely according to its specific gravity, the centre of
gravity of the earth must have been more or less changed.
All who have studied the present statical condition of
the earth’s crust will readily admit that such a change
might produce greater volcanic outbursts than have ever
been known in historical times.
Then when we turn to the most ancient traditions of
the human race in both the old and the new worlds, and
find everywhere fire and water linked together in the
accounts of the great catastrophes that are said nearly to
have annihilated the human race, I for one am inclined
to accept them, and to believe that when, in the “Leo
Ch. XIX.] VOLCANIC ORIGIN OF LAKES. 357'
Amontli,” as translated by Brasseur de Bourbourg, we
read of “the volcanic convulsions that lasted four days and
four nights,” of “the thunder and lightning that came
out of the sea,” of “the mountains that were rising and
sinking when the great deluge happened,” and that when
Plato on the other side of the Atlantic speaks of the
earthquakes that accompanied the engulphment of At-
lantis, we hear the dim echoes that have been Sounding
down through all time from that remote past, of the
fearful volcanoes and earthquakes that terrified mankind
at the time of the great cataclysm.
In these remarks on the origin of some of the lakes of
Nicaragua I except the largest ones, namely, the lake of
Managua and the great lake of Nicaragua, which pro-
bably occupy areas of depression produced by the large
amount of material abstracted from below and thrown
out by ancient volcanoes. -
CHAPTER XX.
Indian Population of the country lying between the Great Lakes of
Nicaragua and the Pacific—Discovery and Conquest of Nica-
ragua by the Spaniards—Cruelties of the Spaniards—The Indians
of Western Central America all belonged to one Stock—Decadence
of Mexican Civilisation before the arrival of the Spaniards—The
Designation “Nahuatls" proposed to include all the Mexican,
Western Central American, and Peruvian Races that had de-
scended from the same Ancient Stock—The Nahuatls distinct
from the Caribs on one side, and the Red Indians on the other
—Discussion of the Question of the Peopling of America.
T RODE for some distance around the Lake of Masaya,
and reached an Indian village named Nandasme, about
two leagues from the city. As usual the streets were
laid out at right angles, and the houses of the Indians
embowered in trees, many of which are grown entirely for
the beautiful odoriferous flowers they produce. There
are several other Indian villages around the lake, from
each of which paths have been cut through the forest
down to the water, along which the women are constantly
ascending and descending to fill their vessels for the supply
of their houses.
All the fertile country lying between the great lakes
and the Pacific was densely populated at the time of the
conquest, and it was not far from Masaya where the great
chief Diriangan lived, who tried, but tried in vain, to
stem the onward course of the Spaniards. Gil Gonzales
de Avila was in command of the first expedition sent to
explore the country of Nicaragua. He sailed from
Panama with one hundred followers and four horses,
Ch. XX.] SPANISH INVASION OF NICARAGUA. 359
the latter, auxiliaries, whose aid was never dispensed
with in these expeditions on account of the superstitious
terror with which the unaccustomed sight of a man and
a horse, apparently joined together, inspired the Indians.
He landed somewhere on the Gulf of Nicoya, near which
he entered the country of a powerful chief, after whom
the gulf was named. Nicoya entertained the Spaniards
courteously, supplied them with food, and embraced the
Christian religion, being baptized himself along with all
his people, six thousand in number.
Pushing on to the northward for fifty leagues, Gonzales
entered the territories of a great chief named Nicaragua,
whose country comprised the present province of Rivas.
Nicaragua had been informed of “the sharpness of the
Spanish Swords” and received Gonzales with hospitality,
presenting him with much gold, equal to “25,000 pieces
of eight,” and garments and plumes of feathers. He
asked the Spaniards many shrewd questions: about the
flood, and about the Sun, moon, and stars; their motion,
quality, and distance ; what was the cause of night and
day and the blowing of the winds? How the Spaniards
got all their information about heaven; who brought it
to them, and if the messenger came down on a rainbow.
We are told that “ Gonzales answered to the best of his
ability, commending the rest to God.” Probably his in-
terrogator knew more of the visible heavenly bodies than
he did, for Nicaragua was of the Aztec race, a people
who knew the true theory of eclipses, and possessed an
astronomical calendar of great accuracy.
Pedrarias, who was then in command at Panama,
stimulated by the accounts of the rich country that
Gonzales had discovered, sent Hernando de Cordova in
360 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XX.
1522 to subdue and settle the country of Nicaragua.
Pascual de Andagoya tells the story of the rich land,
“populous and fertile, yielding supplies of maize, and
many fowls of the country, and certain small dogs which
they also eat, and many deer and fish. “This is a land of
abundance of good fruits and of honey and wax, wherewith
all the neighbouring countries are supplied. The bees
are numerous, some of them yellow, and these do not
sting.” The poor Indians, too, could not sting, they were
powerless with their coats of feathers and swords of stone
against the arms of the Spaniards, who treated them like
a hive of stingless bees, turning them out and eating up
their riches. “They had a great quantity of cotton cloths,
and they held their markets in the open squares, where
they traded. They had a manufactory where they made
cordage of a sort of nequen, which is like carded flax;
the cord was beautiful and stronger than that of Spain,
and their cotton canvas was excellent. The Indians
were very civilized in their way of life, like those of
Mexico, for they were a people who had come from that
country, and they had nearly the same language.”
They had even in one direction reached a pitch of
civilization that some of our philanthropists are only now
hoping for. Women's rights were acknowledged, and, if
anything, they appear to have had too much of them.
|Pascual says: “They had many beautiful women. The
husbands were so much under subjection that if they
made their wives angry they were turned out of doors,
and the wives even raised their hands against them.”
Much have the Indians changed since then under the
* This and the other quotation are from the “Narrative of Pascual
de Amdagoya,” translated by C. R. Markham, Esq.. Hakluyt Soc.
Ch. XX.] INIQUITY OF SPANIARDS. 361
dominion of the Spaniard, and now all the toil and labour
fall to the lot of the weaker sex. One custom still
remaining amongst the Masaya Indians may be a relic of
the old days of woman's superiority. When they marry,
the goods that the wife had before her marriage still
belong to her, and if she had a mule or horse, and her
husband had none, he cannot use hers without her
permission.
The poor Indians were ground down to the dust by
the Spaniards with pitiless barbarities. All their pos-
Sessions were seized, and they themselves exported to
Panama and Peru, and sold as slaves to work at the
mines. Even in Pascual's time the country had been
greatly depopulated by these means. The people were
harmless and patient, but there was a noble independ-
ence about them that could not be eradicated, and the
Spaniards found it was cheaper to bring the negro from
Africa, with his light and careless heart, than to try to
enslave a people who did not resist, but who sought
a refuge from their persecutors in the grave rather than
continue in slavery. I shall not harrow the feelings of
my readers with the mass of treachery, avarice, blas-
phemy, and horrible cruelties with which the conquerors
rewarded the noble people who entertained them so
courteously. To me the conquest of Mexico, Central
America, and Peru appears one of the darkest pages in
modern history. One virtue indeed shone out—un-
daunted courage; and the human mind is so constituted
that this single redeeming point irresistibly enlists our
sympathies. But for this, Pizarro would be execrated
as a monster of cruelty, and even the fame of Cortez,
immeasurably superior as he was to the rest of the
362 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XX.
conquerors, would be tarnished with innumerable deeds
of violence and cruelty.
The Pacific provinces of Nicaragua were inhabited by
a people closely related to the Mexicans, and, as has
already been mentioned, their language was nearly the
same. According to Squier, who has more than any
other traveller studied the different races, the Indians
living at the island of Omotepec at the present time are
of pure Mexican or Aztec stock. So many of the names of
towns in the central provinces are also of Aztec origin, that
they must have had a considerable footing there also.
They called the older inhabitants, whom they had
probably dispossessed and driven back to the interior,
“Chontalli,” which means “barbarians,” and hence the
name of the province of Chontales, where these tribes
still existed in considerable numbers at the time of the
conquest.
All these races, differing as they did in language and
in the degree of civilization at which they had arrived,
were closely affiliated. The eminent American archaeo-
logist, Mr. John D. Baldwin, is of opinion that they
were the descendants of indigenes. That at Some very
remote period before they had attained a high degree of
civilization, they separated into two branches, one of
which occupied Peru, the other Central America and
Mexico. Both branches advanced greatly in civilization,
and both afterwards deteriorated by being conquered by
ruder but more warlike people belonging to the same
stock. From Mexico the ancient people spread north-
ward and southward. The northern emigrants peopled
the banks of the Mississippi, and were the mound builders.
The southern emigrants peopled Central America. Then
Ch. XX.] ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. 363
came an immigration from the far north-west, of nomadic
tribes from north-eastern Asia, who drove out the mound
builders. The latter retreated back to Mexico, that their
fathers had left ages before, and were the ancient Toltecs.
Later on, the Aztecs, who were the southern branch of
the ancient Mexicans, invaded Mexico from the South,
and supplanted the Toltecs. Another branch of the same
ancient stock were the Mayas of Yucatan.”
Looking then far back we have, according to the old
traditions, a few people who had escaped a great cata-
clysm, when fire and water both fought against mankind.
Remnants perhaps of many tribes who, when the lowlands
were overwhelmed, escaped to the mountains, speaking
a variety of languages, and bringing with them. Some
remembrances of the civilization of their ancient home.
They increased and multiplied in their new abodes, some
in Mexico, some in Yucatan, and others in Peru arrived
at a great pitch of civilization. Ages passed away, they
had developed into several distinct peoples, all showing
traces of their common descent, but having branched off
in different directions in their lines of progress; all
underlaid by a few great principles: in their religion,
by the worship of the heavenly bodies; in their govern-
ment, by complete and absolute obedience to their kings
and leaders; in their mode of life all agriculturists and
dwellers in regular towns and villages. They spread
northward and occupied the valley of the Mississippi, and
in summer time sent off large bodies of workmen to
extract the copper of Lake Superior. Then came the
nomadic tribes from the north-west, the red Indians
of the present day, and drove out the mound builders,
* Ancient America, by J. D. Baldwin, A.M.
364 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XX.
who were turned back on their ancient home, of which
they had lost all recollection, and where they appeared as
immigrants and invaders. In the subjugation of the
ancient Choluans by the Toltecs, and afterwards the
Toltecs by the Aztecs, we see what has often occurred in
the world's history—a highly civilized race conquered by
a ruder people, who had advanced farther in the arts of
war, and so overcame the people who had advanced farther
in the arts of peace. Therefore the Choluans were re-
placed by the more warlike Toltecs, the Toltecs by the
ruder Aztecs, and those who look at the miserable towns
and villages of the present inhabitants alongside of the
ruins of the grand edifices, the roads and aqueducts of
ancient Mexico and Peru, may say, the Aztecs by the
less civilized Spaniards. .
The term Brown Indians has been proposed to dis-
tinguish the races of Mexico, Central and South America,
from the red Indians of the north ; but it is a too general
term, as it includes not only the highly-civilized'Aztecs,
Mayas, and Peruvians, but the much ruder Caribs of the
eastern coasts of South America and the Antilles, who
were widely removed from them in race and language.
Squier has proposed the term Nahuatls for the people
of Mexico and Central America, and if it might be
strained to include the Peruvians also, and all the peoples
descended from that ancient civilized race that had
spread northward and Southward, it would supply a
want that I have greatly felt in studying these peoples.
The Nahuatls—I use the term in the extended sense—
are one of three great Indian races that occupy the
greater part of North and South America. They had
the Red Indians to the north of them, the Savage Caribs
Ch. XX.] ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS. 365
to the south-east; from both these races they were pro-
foundly different, though not in equal degrees. To the
Red Indian they have scarcely any affinity, excepting
such as had been brought about by the nomads, who
came down from the north-west, taking the women of
the Nahuatls, whom they conquered, for their wives, and
thus bringing about some points of structural resemblance,
such as are to be seen in a lesser degree in the citizens
of the United States, through whose veins the blood of
the half-breeds of the earlier settlements still courses.
In Florida, and around the northern side of the Gulf of
Mexico, there had probably been a greater fusion of the
two races. But in origin the two peoples are distinct;
the one came from north-eastern Asia, the other, I
believe, from a tropical country joined on to the present
continent, that was submerged at the breaking up of the
glacial period.
Was that country to the east or the west of the
present continent P Was it Atlantis, or was it a sub-
merged country in the Pacific P I am inclined to the
latter opinion, and to believe that the inhabitants of
ancient Atlantis were the ancestors of the warlike and
adventurous Caribs. The Nahuatls, in their peaceful
dispositions and agricultural pursuits, are much more
nearly allied to the Polynesians, and their present
preponderance on the western coast favours the idea
that they had a western Origin.
The Caribs, who were found in possession of most of
the West Indian Islands, and of the eastern coast of
South America, were a warlike, fierce, and enterprising
race; and, even in Columbus's time, were found making
long voyages to ravage the villages of the peace-loving
366 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XX.
Nahuatls. If there be any truth in the story told to
Solon by the priests of Sais, they are a much more
likely people to have invaded the countries around the
Mediterranean than the Nahuatls. What seems foreign
in the customs and beliefs of the latter appears to have
come from the west—from China and Japan—whilst
there are some few points of affinity between the
Caribs and the peoples of Europe and Africa. Thus,
Mr. Hyde Clarke states that the greater part of Brazil
is covered by the Guarani or Tupi languages, which
are allied to the Agan of the Nile region, the Aokhass
of Caucasia, &c.
There is one singular custom amongst the Carib races
of America, and amongst some ancient peoples in Asia,
Europe, and Africa, the existence of which on both sides
of the Atlantic cannot, I think, be explained, excepting
on the theory that there was a remote intercourse or
affinity amongst the peoples who practised it. I allude
to the singular custom of the “Couvade,” in which the
father is put to bed on the birth of a child. I take the
following account of this curious practice from Mr.
Tylor's philosophical “Early History of Mankind.”
The couvade is developed to the highest degree in
South America and the West Indies. The following
account is given by Du Tertre of the Carib couvade in
the West Indies. When a child is born, the mother
goes presently to work, but the father begins to complain,
and takes to his hammock, and there he is visited as
though he were sick, and undergoes a course of dieting
“which would cure of the gout the most replete of
Frenchmen.” The imaginary invalid must repose and
Ch. XX.] THE * : COUVADE.” 367
take careful nursing and nourishing food. In Brazil, on
the birth of a child, the father was put to bed and fed
with light food, whilst the mother was unattended to,
and went about her work. The practice of the couvade
was universal, in some form or other, amongst the Carib
races, but was unknown amongst the peoples whom T
have called the Nahuatls.
On the other side of the Atlantic the couvade has
been noticed in West Africa, and “amongst the moun-
tain tribes known as the Miau-tsze, who are supposed to be
like the Sontals and Gonds of India, remnants of a race
driven into the mountains by the present dwellers of the
plains.” “Another Asiatic people, recorded to have
practised the couvade, are the Tibareni of Pontus, at the
south of the Black Sea, among whom, when the child
was born, the father lay groaning in bed with his head
tied up, while the mother tended him with food and
prepared his baths.” “In Europe the couvade may be
traced up from ancient into modern times in the neigh-
bourhood of the Pyrenees. Above 1,800 years ago
Strabo mentions the story that, among the Iberians of
the north of Spain, the women, after the birth of a child,
tend their husbands, putting them to bed instead of
going themselves; and this account is confirmed by the
evidence of the practice amongst the modern Basques.
In Biscay, says Michel, in valleys whose population
recalls in its usages the infancy of Society, the women
rise immediately after childbirth and attend to the duties
of the household, while the husband goes to bed, taking
the baby with him, and thus receives the neighbours’
compliments.” “It has been found also in Navarre, and
on the French side of the Pyrenees. Legrand d’Aussy
368 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XX,
mentions that in an old French fable the king of Tore-
lose is ‘au lit et en couche' when Aucassin arrives and
takes a stick to him and makes him promise the custom
in his realm. The same author goes on to say that the
practice is said still to exist in some cantons of Béarn,
where it is called ‘faire la couvade.” Lastly, Diodorus
Siculus notices the same habit of the wife being neglected,
and the husband put to bed and treated as the patient
among the natives of Corsica about the beginning of the
Christian era.”
For a fuller account of the couvade I must refer my
readers to Tylor’s “Early History of Mankind,” from
which I have so largely quoted; his summing up of this
curious custom is profound and philosophical. He says,
“ the isolated occurrences of a custom among particular
races, surrounded by other races that ignore it, may be
sometimes to the ethnologist like those outlying patches
of strata from which the geologist infers that the forma-
tion they belong to once spread over intervening districts,
from which it has been removed by denudation; or like
the geographical distribution of plants, from which the
botanist argues that they have travelled from a distant
home. The way in which the couvade appears in the
new and old worlds is especially interesting from this
point of view. Among the savage tribes of South Ame-
rica it is, as it were, at home, in a mental atmosphere,
at least, not so different from that in which it came into
being as to make it a mere meaningless, absurd super-
stition. If the culture of the Caribs and Brazilians, even
before they came under our knowledge, had advanced too
far to allow the couvade to grow up fresh among them,
they at least practised it with Some consciousness of its
Ch. XX.] THE COUWADE. 369
meaning; it had not fallen out of unison with their
mental state. Here we find, covering a vast compact
area of country, the mental stratum, so to speak, to
which the couvade most nearly belongs. But if we look
at its appearances across from China to Corsica the state
of things is widely different; no theory of its origin can
be drawn from the Asiatic and European accounts to
compete for a moment with that which flows naturally
from the observations of the missionaries, who found it
not a mere dead custom, but a live growth of Savage
psychology. The peoples, too, who have kept it up in
Asia and Europe seem to have been, not the great pro-
gressive, spreading, conquering, civilising nations of the
Aryan, Semitic, and Chinese stocks. It cannot be
ascribed even to the Tartars, for the Lapps, Finns, and
Hungarians appear to know nothing of it. It would
seem rather to have belonged to that ruder population,
or series of populations, whose fate it has been to be
driven by the great races out of the fruitful lands to
take refuge in mountains and deserts. The retainers of
the couvade in Asia are the Miau-tsze of China and the
savage Tibareni of Pontus. In Europe they are the
Basque race of the Pyrenees, whose peculiar manners,
appearance, and language, coupled with their geographical
position, favour the view that they are the remains of a
people driven westward and westward, by the pressure of
more powerful tribes, till they came to these last moun-
tains, with nothing but the Atlantic beyond. Of what
stock were the original barbarian inhabitants of Corsica
we do not know; but their position, and the fact that
they, too, had the couvade, would suggest their having
been a branch of the same family who escaped their
- IR B
370 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XX.
persecutors by putting out to sea and settling in their
mountainous island.”
Let us now return to the Nahuatls, and see if they
present any affinities to the nations of the old world.
Humboldt's well-known argument, in which he sought
to prove the Asiatic origin of the Mexicans, was based
upon the remarkable resemblance of their system of
reckoning cycles of years to that found in use in different
parts of Asia. Both the Asiatic and Mexican systems of
cycles is most artificial in its construction, and trouble-
some in its practice, and they are very unlikely to have
arisen independently on two continents. Humboldt says,
“I inferred the probability of the western nations of the
new continent having had communication with the east of
Asia long before the arrival of the Spaniards from a com-
parison of the Mexican and Thibeto-Japanese calendars,
—from the correct orientation of the steps of the pyramidal
elevations towards the different quarters of the heavens,
and from the ancient myths and traditions of the four
ages or four epochs of destruction of the world, and the
dispersion of mankind after a great flood of waters.” +
Whilst there are undoubtedly many curious coinci-
dences in the customs of the ancient Mexicans and the
peoples of eastern Asia, there are, on the other hand, so
many differences that I believe it is safer to infer that
they were essentially distinct in origin, but that there
had been communication between the two peoples in
very early times, so remote that the foreign influence in
Mexico was extremely feeble, and too weak to check the
* E. B. Tylor, “Early History of Mankind,” pp. 288-297.
ºf Humboldt, “Aspects of Nature,” vol. ii. p. 174.
Ch. XX.] DERIVATION OF THE AMERICAN RACE. 371
growth of an essentially indigenous civilisation. Possibly
Sun and serpent worship, baptism, and the use of the
cross as a sacred emblem, were the survival of religious
beliefs that had obtained in the very cradle of the human
race. We cannot, however, believe that mankind had,
before the separation and dispersion of the eastern and
Western nations, attained to any great astronomical
knowledge, and it is quite possible that the extraordinary
coincidences between the chronological and astronomical
systems of the Nahuatls and the eastern Asiatics might
have been brought about by some of the latter having
been stranded on the American shore.
Humboldt argued that, “as the western coasts of the
American continent trend from N.-W. to S.-E., and the
eastern coasts of Asia in the opposite direction, the dis-
tance between the two continents in 45° of latitude, or
in the temperate zone, which is most favourable to mental
development, is too considerable to admit of the probability
of such an accidental settlement taking place in that
latitude. We must then assume the first landing to have
been made in the inhospitable climate of from 55° to 65°,
and that the civilisation thus introduced, like the general
movement of population in America, has proceeded by
successive stations from north to south.”.” If we are
obliged to assume that the people themselves came
from the old world, such an origin might be sought for
them as well as any other; but all research since Hum-
boldt's time has favoured the idea that there are no signs
of the Nahuatls being a newer people than the nations
of Asia. And if it is not the derivation of the people,
but of some coincidences in their observances and know-
* Humboldt, “Aspects of Nature,” vol. ii. p. 176.
B B 2
372 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XX.
ledge, we may seek for it some simpler solution than the
migration of a whole people down through North to
Central America. That solution is, I believe, to be
found in the fact not taken into consideration by Hum-
boldt, that the great Japanese current, after traversing
the eastern coast of Japan, sends one large branch nearly
directly east across the Pacific to the coast of California,
and an offshoot from it passes southward along the
Mexican coast and as far as the western coast of Central
America. In Kotzebue's narrative of his voyage round
the world, he says, “Dooking over Adams' diary, I found
the following notice—‘Brig Forester, March 24, 1815,
at sea, upon the coast of California, latitude 32° 45' N.
longitude 133° 3' W. We saw this morning, at a short
distance, a ship, the confused state of whose sails showed
that they wanted assistance. We bent our course to-
wards her, and made out the distressed vessel to be
Japanese, which had lost both mast and helm. Only
three dying Japanese, the captain and two sailors, were
found in the vessel. We took these unfortunate people
on board our brig, and, after four months' nursing, they
entirely recovered. We learned from these people that
they had sailed from the harbour of Osaka, in Japan,
bound for another sea-port, but were overtaken by a
storm, in which they lost the helm and mast. Till that
day their ship had been drifting about, a mere butt for
the winds and waves, during seventeen months; and of
thirty-five men only three remained, all the others having
died of hunger.’” Is it not likely that in ancient times
such accidents may have occurred again and again, and
that information of the astronomical and chronological
systems of eastern Asia may thus have been brought to
Ch. XX.] ASIATIC ORIGIN. 373
the Nahuatls, who, from the ease with which they em-
braced the religion of the Spaniards, are shown to have
been open to receive foreign ideas. w
The three arguments on which Humboldt principally
relied to prove that a communication had existed between
the east of Asia and the Mexicans may be explained
without adopting this theory that the Nahuatls had
travelled round from the old world. The remarkable
resemblance of the Mexican and Thibeto-Japanese
calendars might result from the accidental stranding of
a Japanese or Chinese vessel on their shores, bringing to
them some man learned in the astronomy of the old
world. The correct orientation of the sides of their
pyramidal temples was but the result of their great
astronomical knowledge and of the worship of the sun.
And the resemblance of their traditions of four epochs of
destruction and of the dispersion of mankind after a great
flood of waters, arose from the fact that the great catas-
trophes that befel the human race at the melting of the
ice of the glacial period were universal over the world.
CHAPTER XXI.
Return to Santo Domingo—The Birds of Chontales—The Insects of
Chontales—Mimetic forms—Departure from the Mines—Nica-
ragua as a field for Emigration—Journey to Greytown—Return
to England.
HAvLNG finished our business at Masaya, we rode back
to Granada on the evening of the second day, and the
next morning took a passage in a fine steamboat that
Mr. Hollenbeck, of Greytown, had placed on the lake to
convey passengers and goods between Granada and San
Carlos, at the head of the river San Juan. We arrived
at San Ubaldo at two o'clock, and found our mules safe
but foot-sore, through travelling over the rocky hills from
Santo Claro. The San José plains were in a dreadfully
muddy state, and for five miles we went plunging through
the swamps. Most of the mules fell several times, and
we had great difficulty in getting them up again. We
passed two travellers with their mules up to their girths
in mud, and incapable of extricating themselves, but
could not help them, as we dared not allow ours to stand,
or they would stick fast also. We had met, at San
Ubaldo, the son of Dr. Seemann, on his way home to
England. His pack-mule had stuck fast in the plains
the night before, and he had passed the night sitting
on his boxes, half sunk in the mud, and attacked by
myriads of mosquitoes that had covered his hands, face,
and neck with blisters.
Ch. XXI.] MUDDY PLAINS. º 375
It was two hours after dark before we got across the
Weary plains, and we found shelter for the night at a
Small hut on their border, where, for a consideration,
the occupants gave up to us their mosquito curtains and
stretchers, and sat up themselves. I suppose in such situa-
tions people get used to the mosquitoes, but to us they
were intolerable. They buzzed around us and settled on
our hands and face, if the former were not incessantly
employed driving them off. Those of our party who had
no curtains had a lively time of it. A gentleman of
colour, from Jamaica, who was returning to the mines
after escorting young Mr. Seemann to the port, and who
could find no place to rest in, excepting an old hammock,
kept his long arms going round like a windmill, every
now and then wakening every one up with a loud crack,
as he tried to bring his flat hand down on one of his
tormentors. A mosquito, however, is not to be caught,
even in the dark, in such a way. It holds up its two
hinder legs as feelers; and the current of air driven
before a descending blow warns it of the impending
danger, so it darts off to one side, to renew its attack
somewhere else. The most certain way to catch them in
the dark is to move the outstretched finger cautiously
towards where one is felt, until a safe striking distance is
reached. But what is the use of killing one when they
are in myriads P. None whatever, excepting that it is
some occupation for the sleepless victim. The black
gentleman was a thinker and a scholar, and used to
amuse himself at the mines by writing letters addressed
to Mr. Jacob Elam, Esqre. (himself), in which he was in-
formed he had been left legacies of ten, twenty, or thirty
thousand pounds, a few thousand more or less costing
376 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
nothing. Pondering during that weary night over the
purposes of creation, he startled me about one in the
morning with the question, “Mr. Belt, sir, can you tell
me what is the use of mosquitoes?”
“To enjoy themselves and be happy, Jacob.”
“Ah, sir! if I was only a mosquito l’” said Jacob, as
he came down with another fruitless whack.
At the first cock-crow we were up, and as the cheerful
dawn lighted up the east, we were in our saddles, and
the miseries of the night were but the jests of the morn-
ing. The mules even seemed to be eager to leave that
dismal swamp, where malaria hung in the air, and mos-
quitoes did their best to drive mankind away from the
pestilential morass. The dry savannahs were before us,
our hearts were young as the morning, the tormenting
spirits of the night had flown away with the darkness,
and jest and banter enlivened the road. We reached
Acoyapo at nine o’clock; and there my good friend Don
Dolores Bermudez lent me a fresh mule, so, riding all
day, I reached Santo Domingo in the evening.
I have little more of interest to relate. Years had
sped on at Santo Domingo; and the time approached
when I should be set free from the worries and
responsibilities attending the supervision of gold mines,
the products of which were just at that tantalising point,
on the verge between profit and loss, that made their
Superintendence a most irksome and anxious duty. The
difficulty of the task was vastly increased by the capital
of the company having been originally wasted in the
erection of machinery that proved to be useless; so that
financial questions constantly retarded the completion of
Ch. XXI.] BIRDS OF NICAIRAGUA. 377
the works. This book has not been written, however,
to tell the story of the struggles of a mining engineer ;
and I turn aside with pleasure from this slight digression
to say what little more I have to relate of my natural-
history experiences. &
I did not, until near the conclusion of my stay, com-
mence collecting the skins of birds, contenting myself
with watching and noting their habits. I obtained the
skins of ninety-two species only; but small as this col-
lection was, it proved an important addition to the
knowledge of the bird-fauna of Nicaragua. The eminent
ornithologist, Mr. Osbert Salvin, published in the “Ibis.”
for July, 1872, a list of seventy-three species that I had up
to that time sent to England. Altogether, only one
hundred and fifty species, including those that I had col-
lected, were known from Nicaragua. Fragmentary as
our knowledge is, it is sufficient, in Mr. Salvin’s opinion,
to indicate, with tolerable accuracy, to which of the two
Sub-provinces of the Central American fauna the forest
region of Chontales belongs. The birds I sent to Eng-
land proved nearly conclusively that the Costa-Rican
Sub-province included Chontales in Nicaragua, and that
the boundary between it and the sub-province of
Southern Mexico and Guatemala must be sought for
more to the north-west.
Of the southern species, which in Chontales find their
northern limit, so far as is known, there are in my small
collection thirty-two species, whilst belonging to the
northern sub-province, and not known to range further
South, there are only seven species; showing that the
connection with Costa Rica and the south is much closer
than that with Guatemala and the north, and that the
378 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
boundary between the two sub-provinces is not found, as
was supposed, in the depression of the isthmus occupied
by the great lakes and their outlet the San Juan river,
but must exist further towards, if not in, Honduras.
Mr. Salvin says, “What I suspect to be the case, though
I cannot as yet bring evidence to prove it, is, that the
forests of Chontales spread uninterruptedly into Costa
Rica, but that towards the north and north-west a
decided break occurs, and that this break determines the
range of the prevalent Costa Rican and Guatemalan
forest forms.”* I can confirm Mr. Salvin’s supposition.
The San Juan river forms no greater break in the forest
than a dozen other rivers that run through it and fall
into the Atlantic. But a decided interruption does occur
to the north-west. It is found in the valleys of Humuya
and Goascoran in Honduras, which, along with the
central plain of Comayagua, constitute a great trans-
verse valley running north and south from sea to sea,
and cutting completely through the chain of the cordil-
leras. The highest point of this pass is 2850 feet above
the Sea, and the country around is composed of undu-
lating savannahs and plains covered with grass. The
Gulf of Honduras, cutting deeply into the continent,
also plays an important part in preventing the inter-
mingling of the faunas of the two sub-provinces, but the
principal barrier is the termination of the great Atlantic
forest north-westward, which even at Cape Gracias begins
to give place to plains and savannahs next the coast.
My entomological collections were much more com-
plete than my collections of birds, especially as to the
* “The Ibis,” July, 1872, p. 312.
# Squier, “States of Central America,” p. 681.
Ch. XXI.] INSECTS OF NICARAGUA. 379
butterflies and beetles. Mr. W. C. Hewitson has described
25 new species, but no list of the whole of the butterflies
known from Nicaragua has yet been published. In
Coleoptera I made large collections, but the extensive
families of the Elateridae, Lamellicorns, and others are
still uncatalogued, and very many species remain to be
described. The only beetles that have been catalogued
as yet with sufficient completeness to warrant any ge-
neral conclusions are the Longicorns. I collected about
300 different species, and Mr. H. W. Bates has enume-
rated 242 of these in a paper “On the Longicorn Cole-
optera of Chontales, Nicaragua,” published in the “Trans-
actions of the Entomological Society for 1872.” In an
interesting summary of the results he gives the following
analysis of the range of the species:—
Peculiar to Chontales . © g . 133 species.
Common to Chontales and Mexico . . 38 ,,
25 5 2 the West India
Islands. 5 ,
5 3 3 5 the United States 5 , ,
.. 55 New Grenada or
Venezuela . 24 : ,,
5 3 39 the Amazon Re-
gion . . 22 ,
3 9 • 5 South Brazil . 10 ,,
Generally distributed in Tropical America . 5 ,,
242 ,,
Omitting the peculiar species and those generally
distributed in Tropical America, we have thus forty-
three that are found in Chontales and in Mexico or the
United States, and sixty-one that are found in Chontales
380 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
and countries lying to the southward. The preponder-
ance of Southern forms is not so great as in the birds,
but when we reflect on the large number of peculiar
species, and that the Longicorns of the Atlantic slope of
Costa Rica are yet scarcely known, it appears likely that
many of the Chontales species will be found ranging
Southward across the San Juan river, and that the Insect
fauna will be shown to have the same relations as the
Bird fauna; for, as the Atlantic forest continues un-
broken much further southward than northward, so will
the insects peculiar to the forest region have a greater
range in that direction.
Mr. Hollick has beautifully drawn on wood a few of
the characteristic Longicorns of Chontales, all of them,
with one exception (Polyrhaphis Fabricii), being as yet
only known from that province, but probably extending
into Costa Rica. .
One of these, the lovely little Cosmisoma Titania,
No. 7 in Plate, has been appropriately named after the
Queen of the Fairies by Mr. Bates. It was first found
by Mr. Janson, junior, who came out to Chontales pur-
posely to collect the insects; and I afterwards obtained
it in great numbers. The use of the curious brushes on
the antennae is not known. Another longicorn, about the
same size (Coremia hirtipes), has its two hindmost legs
greatly lengthened, and furnished with brushes: one I
saw on a branch was flourishing these brushes in the
air, and I thought at first they were two black flies
hovering over the branch, my attention being taken from
the body of the beetle by the movement of the brushes.
Another fine longicorn, figured in Plate, Deliathis nivea,
looks as if made of pure white porcelain spotted with
J.W.WHYMPER.Sc.
LONGICORN BEETLF's or CHONTALES. Page 380.
1. Evander nobilis, Bates. 2. Gymnocerus Beltii, Bates. 3. Polyrhaphis Fabricii, Thom.
4. Deliathis nivea, Bates. 5. Taemiotes praeclarus, Bates. 6. Chalastimus rubrocinctus, Bates.
7. Cosmisoma Titania, Bates. S. Carneatles superba, Bates. 9. Amphionyca princeps, Bates.

Ch. XXI.] MIMETIC INSECTS. 381
black. It was a rare beetle, one or two specimens
each season being generally all that were taken; it
was usually found on the leaves of young trees, from
twelve to twenty feet from the ground. I have taken
the rather heavy-bodied female by throwing a stone at
it and causing it to fall within reach, but the male is
more active on the wing, and it was long before I could
obtain a specimen.
Amongst the insects of Chontales none are more worthy
of notice than the many curious species of Orthoptera
LEAF INSECT.
that resemble green and faded leaves of trees. I have
already described one species that looks like a green leaf,

382 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
and so much so that it even deceived the acute senses of
the foraging ants; other species, belonging to a closely-
related genus (Pterochroga), imitate leaves in every
stage of decay, some being faded-green blotched with
yellow ; others, as in the species figured, resemble a
brown withered leaf, the resemblance being increased by
a transparent hole through both wings that looks like a
piece taken out of the leaf. In many butterflies that
resemble leaves on the under side of their wings, the
wings being raised and closed together when at rest so
as to hide the bright colours of the upper surface, there
are similar transparent spots that imitate holes; and
others again are jagged at the edge, as if pieces had
been taken out of them. Many chrysalides also have
mirror-like spots that resemble holes; and one that I
found hanging from the under side of a leaf had a real
hole through it, formed by a horn that projected from
the thorax and doubled back to the body, leaving a space
between. Another insect, of which I only found two
MIOSS (NSECT.
specimens, had a wonderful resemblance to a piece of
moss, amongst which it concealed itself in the daytime,

Ch. XXI.] EXPLANATION OF MIMETIC FORMS. 3S3
and was not to be distinguished except when accidentally
shaken out; it is the larva stage of a species of Phasma.
The extraordinary perfection of these mimetic resem-
blances is most wonderful; and I have heard this urged
as a reason for believing that they could not have been
produced by natural selection, as it has been argued
that a much less degree of resemblance would have pro-
tected the mimetic species. To this it may be answered,
that natural selection not only tends to pick out and
preserve the forms that have protective resemblances,
but to increase the perceptions of the predatory species
of insects and birds, so that there is a continual progres-
sion towards a perfectly mimetic form. This progressive
improvement in means of defence and of attack may be
illustrated in this way. Suppose a number of not very
Swift hares and a number of slow-running dogs were
placed on an island where there was plenty of food for
the hares but none for the dogs, except the hares they
could catch, the slowest of the hares would be first
killed, and the swifter preserved. Then the slowest-
running dogs would suffer, and having less food than the
fleeter ones, would have least chance of living, and the
swiftest dogs would be preserved; thus the fleetness of
both dogs and hares would be gradually but surely
perfected by natural selection, until the greatest speed
was reached that it was possible for them to attain. I
have in this supposed example confined myself to the
question of speed alone, but in reality other means of
pursuit and of escape would come into play and be
improved. The dogs might increase in cunning, or com-
bine together to work in couples or in packs by the same
Selective process; and the hares on their part might
384 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
acquire means of concealment or stratagem to elude their
enemies; but, on both sides, the improvement would be
progressive until the highest form of excellence was
reached. Viewed in this light, the wonderful perfection
of mimetic forms is a natural consequence of the selec-
tion of the individuals that, on the one side, were more
and more mimetic, and on the other (that of their
enemies) more and more able to penetrate through the
assumed disguises. It doubtless happened in some
cases that species, having many foes, have entirely thrown
off some of them through the disguises they have been
brought to assume, but others they still cannot elude.
Since Mr. Bates first brought forward the theory of
mimetic resemblances its importance has been more and
more demonstrated, as it has been found how very largely
animal life has been influenced in form and colour by the
natural selection of the varieties that were preserved from
their enemies, or enabled to approach their prey, through
the resemblance they bore to something else. So general
are these deceptive resemblances throughout nature, that
it is often difficult to determine whether sexual preferences
or the preservation of mimetic forms has been most
potent in moulding the form and coloration of species,
and in some the two forces are seen to be opposed in
their operation. Thus in some butterflies that mimic
the Heliconidae, the females only are mimetic, the males
retaining the normal form and coloration of the group to
which they belong. In such cases it appears as if the
females have not been checked in gradually assuming
the disguise they wear, and it is important that they
should be protected, as they are more exposed to de-
struction while seeking for places to deposit their eggs;
Ch. XXI.] DEPARTURE FOR ENGLAND. 385
but that both sexes should not have inherited the change
inform and colour when it would have been beneficial to
both can only be explained, I think, on the supposition
that the females had a choice of mates and preferred
those that retained the primordial appearance of the
group. This view is supported by the fact that many of the
males of the mimetic Leptalides have the upper half of the
lower wing of a pure white, whilst all the rest of the wings
is barred and spotted with black, red, and yellow, like
the species they mimic. The females have not this white
patch, and the males usually conceal it by covering it
with the upper wing, so that I cannot imagine its being
of any other use to them than as an attraction in court-
ship, when they exhibit it to the females, and thus
gratify their deep-seated preference for the normal
colour of the order to which the Leptalides belong.
I finally left the mines September 6th, 1872, on my
way to England. I was accompanied through the forest
by several of the mining officials. Though glad to return
to Europe, it was not without some feeling of regret that
I rode for the last time through the forest where I had
so often wandered during the years I had been at Santo
Domingo. The woods had become as familiar to me as
home scenes. No more should I see the white-headed
ruby humming-bird come darting down the brook, chasing
away the green-throat from its bathing-place. No more
watch the flocks of many-coloured birds hunting the in-
sects in the forests, or admire the wonderful instincts of
the tropical ants. I listened with pleasure to the last
hoarse cries of the mot-mots, and tried to impress on my
memory the curious forms of vegetation—the palms, the
C, C
386 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
gigantic arums, the tangled lianas, and perching epi-
phytes.
After reaching Pital Irode rapidly over the savannahs,
where the Swallows were skimming over the top of the long
grass to frighten up the insects which rested on it. After
another flounder across the San Jose plains, I reached
San Ubaldo without incident, excepting a tumble with
my mule in the mud. Much of the land between Pital
and the lake is well fitted for the cultivation of maize,
sugar, and plantains, and near the river at Acoyapo the
soil is very fertile. Little of it is occupied, and it is open
to any one to squat down on it and fence it in. All that
is required is that the form shall be gone through of ob-
taining permission from the alcalde of the township, which
is never refused. Nicaragua offers a tempting field for
the emigrant, but there are some other considerations
which should not be lost sight of. When a man finds
he can live easily without much work, that all his
neighbours are contented with the scantiest clothing, the
coarsest food, and the poorest dwellings, he is very apt to
fall into the same slothful habits; and even if he himself
has innate energy enough to ward off the insidious foe,
he will see his children growing up around him exposed
to all the temptations to lead an easy life that a tropical
climate offers, and without any example of industry or
enterprise around them to rouse or cultivate a spirit of
emulation. The consequence is that nearly all the
foreign settlers in Nicaragua from amongst the European
and North American labouring classes have fallen into
the same lazy habits as the Nicaraguans, and whenever
I have been inclined to blame the natives for their in-
dolence, some recollection of a fellow-countryman who
Ch. XXI.] RMIGRATION. 387
has succumbed to the same influences has arrested my
harsher judgment. I cannot recommend Nicaragua with
all its natural wealth, its perpetual summer, its magnifi-
cent lakes, and its teeming soil, as a place of emigration
for isolated families, and even for larger schemes of
colonization I do not think it so suitable as our own
colonies and the United States. A large body of emi-
grants would carry with them the healthful influence of
the good and industrious, and the spirit of emulation and
progress might be preserved if the community could be
kept together, but I am afraid it could not be. After a
while the tastes of one individual would lead in one
direction, those of another in an opposite. Where all
were free to choose, the idle would go away from the in-
fluences that urged them to industry, the sensual from the
restraints of morality. Many will, however, smile at the
objection I have to emigration to Nicaragua, when they
perceive that it is founded only on the ease with which
people can live in plenty there. There is one form of
colonization that will be successful, the gradual moving
down southward of the people of the United States.
When the destiny of Mexico is fulfilled, with one stride
the Anglo-American will bound to the Isthmus of
Panama, and Central America will be filled with cattle
estates, and with coffee, sugar, indigo, cotton, and cacao
plantations. Railways will then keep up a healthful and
continuous intercourse with the enterprising North, and
the sluggard and the sensual will not be able to stand
before the competition of the vigorous and virtuous. Nor
will the Anglo-American be stayed by the Isthmus, long,
in his progress southward. Unless some such catastrophe
happens as a few years ago threatened to turn North
C C 2
388 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA.. [Ch. XXI.
America into a number of hostile camps like Europe,
which God forbid, not many centuries will roll over
before the English language will be spoken from the
frozen soil of the far north to Tierra del Fuego in the
South.
The fine steamer that the enterprise of Mr. Hollenbeck
had placed on the lake, and which he had named the
“Elizabeth " after his amiable wife, had been wrecked a
short time before I left the country, and Mr. Hollen-
beck's own health had greatly suffered by the labours he
undertook in endeavouring to get the vessel off the
sunken rock on which it had struck. Notwithstanding
this and several other misfortunes, which never come
singly, but always try a man’s mettle to its foundation,
his native pluck had carried him through all his diffi-
culties, and he was away to the States to get new vessels
and blow another blast at fortune's iron gates. Whilst
I write these last few pages I learn that a new steamer
ploughs the lake, and that his transit service is again in
complete working order. Success attend him.
The result of the wreck of the “Elizabeth,” so far as
I was concerned, was that I had to take a passage down
the lake to San Carlos in a bungo packet, so full that I
had to make closer acquaintanceship with many amiable
Nicaraguans than was agreeable to my insular prejudices;
and when in the middle of the night an old woman tried
to roll me off the soft plank I had found for myself
into a litter of crying babies, T indulged in some bitter
reflections on the race, that, I am happy to say, were as
transitory as the inconvenience to which I was put. At
(San Carlos we changed to the river steamer under my
Ch. XXI.] CONCLUSION. 389
old friend Captain Birdsall. As I have already de-
scribed the scenery of the San Juan in the account of my
journey up, I shall not repeat the story, but simply state
that we reached Greytown on the 11th September, and
on the 16th embarked on the West Indian Mail
Packet. I arrived in England within a month, to find
my native town (Newcastle) wealthier and dirtier than
ever, with thousands of furnaces belching out Smoke and
poisonous gases: to find the people of England fretting
about the probable exhaustion of her coal-fields in a few
hundred years, actually dreading the time when she will
no longer be the Smithy of the world, but the centre of
the science, philosophy, literature, and art of the Anglo-
Saxon race—that race whose sons all over the globe will
then look up to her with loving reverence as the mother
of nations, the colonizer of the world, the pioneer of
freedom, progress, and morality.
SKETCH MAP 3.Juan
of
11|– NIC A R A G U.A.
English Miles
jo zo go to do so 76 ºn
87 86
Jondon: John Murray. Albemarlestreet. Faw d Weller.

IN ID E X.
—Q-
ACACIAs, 46, 156
Acarus, 209
Acclimature, 70
A chºras Sapota, 116
Acoyapo, 48, 386
Acrocinus longinianus, 34
Adiantum, 36
Aguardiente, 63, 231
Aguasco, 202
Ahuacatl, 107
Airey, Sir George, 305
Alligators, 3, 9, 15, 44, 159
Alloy, 88
Alluvial deposits, 86
gold, 263
Amalgam, 93
Amalgamation process, 93
America, western side of tropical,
food of people, 55
American race, derivation of, 371
Amerrique range, the, 155, 324
Ampullaria, 331
Amusements, Nicaraguan, 234
Ancimea oblongifolia, 196
— hirsuta, 196
Ancylus, 331, 333
Andagoya, Pascual de, 360; his
account of Nicaragua, 360; on
chicha-drinking, 279
Angelot, M., on fused rock, 98
Angraecum Sesquipedale, 133
Anolis, 339, 340
Antigomon leptopus, 4, 239
...Antiquities, 50 -
Indian, 50, 165
Antonio, San, lode, 89
valley, 126
Ants, 7, 17, 181, 219, 221, 314,
315
Ants, army, 17 ; assisting each
other, 26; attending leaf-
hoppers, 227 ; attending scale-
insects, 225; ant bridge, 27 ;
communicate by scent, 23 ;
cows, 226; foraging, 17;
hunting, 115 ; inhabiting
bull's-horn thorn, 218; leaf-
cutters, 71-84; pseudomyrma,
23; reason in, 27, 76, 83 ;
sagacity of, 83; stinging, 115 ;
thrushes, 20
Apanás, 241
Aphidae, 226
Armadillos, 46, 84, 313
Arrastres, 93
Articulata, 27, 28
Artificial selection, 207
Artigua river, 106, 147
Arums, 6, 57
Asses, 48
Ateles, 341
Atlantis, 270, 365
Auriferous quartz, 87, 95, 96
ºmsºmºmºsºsºsºmsºmºsº veins of, in
Queensland, 96
Australia, hot winds in, 305
wasps in, 134
— whirlwinds in, 303
Avila, Gil Gonzales de, 358
Avocado, 107
— trees, 66
Axes, ancient Mexican, 41
stone, 154
Aztecs, 155, 363
tºº-º-º-º:
BALDWIN, J. D., 362
Bamboo thickets, 179
Bananas, 12, 67
392 INDEX.
Baptism, a pre-Christian rite, 168
Dates, H. W., Mr., on instinct in
wasps, 135; on life under the
Equator, 172; on the Longi-
corn Coleoptera of Chontales,
Nicaragua, 379; on mimetic
forms, 8 ; on mimetic re-
semblances, 384; on Social
birds, 123; on wasps of
Morphos, 229
Bathing places of humming-birds,
137
Bats, 104, 174
Beak of birds, 197
Bees, 320
13eetles, 34, 69, 104, 143, 173,
3.18
habits of, 114; the
harlequin, 34; killing bug,
127 ; on Peña Blanca, 149
Beggars in Nicaragua, scarcity of,
I 60
IBegonia, 58
Bell given to church at Libertad,
151
Benito, San, 126
lode, 89
Bermudez, Don Dolores, 48
Birds accompanying an army of
ants, 20
fertilising flowers, 130
nests, 22, 289
rejecting Heliconii, 316
Bittern, 158
Bland, Mr., on the distribution
of land shells in the West
Indies, 267
Blewfields river, 52, 62
Boulder clay, 247, 260, 291
Boundary question between Ni-
caragua and Costa Rica, 14
Bourbourg, Brasseur de, 357
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abbé, on
the Teo Amoxtli, 271
Brazil, North-east, food of the
people of, 55
Brazil, migratory butterflies of,
153
Bread fruit, 4
British Guiana, food of the people
of, 55
Bromelia, 184
Bruce on whirlwinds in Africa,
302
Buccaneers, 241, 255
Bugs, 71
injecting poisonous fluid,
I28
Bullock, Mr. W., on the use of
rattle in Mexico, 154
Bull's-horn thorn, 23, 218, 290
* wasps attending.
glands of, 220
Bungos, 31
JBuprestidae, 314
Burial customs of the ancient.
Indians, 165
Butterflies, 7, 299, 382
instinct of, 109; mi-
grations of, 152; in Rio Plata,
153 ; in Patagonia, 153; Mr.
Darwin on, 153 ; Mr. R.
Spruce on, 153
CABBAGE, 70
Cacao, 4, 116, 345
Cactuses, 45, 158
Californian pitcher-plant, 184
Callidryas, 108
Calliste larvata, 128
lavinae, 128
Calonyction speciosum, 34
Calopteron basalis (Klug), 317
vicinwm, (Deyrolles),
317
Canal, interOceanic, 36
Candolle, Alph. de, on fresh-
water productions, 331
Candelera, El, 329
Canis caraibicus (Lesson), 206
- ingae (Tschudi), 206
Canoe, 11
Cape Gracias à Dios, 3
Capsicums, 70
Captive Indians, 40
Carabidae, 149, 332
Carbolic acid, 76
Carca Indians, 338
river, 147
Caribbean Sea, carving on rocks.
INDEX. 393,
On the banks of rivers running
into, 53
Caribs, 2, 12, 53, 55, 204, 364-
366
Christians, Icelandic, 168
Cicada, 312
Cinerary urns, 164
Citron trees, 65
Citrus aurantium, 74
lemonwm, 74
—— medicus, 75
Clarke, Mr. Hyde, 366
on whirlwinds in Russia,
302
food of the, 55
Carlos, San, 35, 36
river, 35
Carrots, 70
Castillo, capture of, by Nelson, 31
Castilloa elastica, 33
Caterpillars, 71
Catlin, G., on traditions of the
deluge, among the American
Indians, 272
Cattle, 48
—— raising, 308
Cebus albifrons, 156, 341
white-faced, 118 ; anecdotes
about, 119
Cecropia, 58, 222
Cedar, 11, 34
Cedrela odorata, 11, 34
Celeus castamews, 123
Cement, 253
Centipedes, 22, 174
Central America, states of, ab-
sence of patriotism in, 343;
civil war and revolutionary
outbreaks in, 343, 344;
tyrannical oligarchies im, 343
Centurus pucherani (Mahl), 123
Chachalabes, 121
Chicchera, 48.
Chicha, 232, 279, 293
Children, great numbers of, 289
Childs, Col. O. W., survey for
canal, 35
Chilote, 54
Chioties, 66 t
Chirosciphia lineafa, 162
Chlorophames guatemalensis, 128
Chocoyo river, 308
Cholmans, 364
Chontales, birds of, 377
insects, 379
derived from Chontali,
362
—— Mining Co., 60, 65, 88
and Costa Rica, connec-
tion of forest forms, 377, 378
Chontals, 155
sº-sº
Claro, Santo, 329
Clausillia, 333
Clavigero, 67 ; on the Xoloitz-
cuintli, 205
Climate of Nicaragua, 235
of Santo Domingo, 104
Club moss, 238
Coccidae, 222, 226
Cockatoo of Australia, 196
Cockchafer, 127
Cock-fighting, 49
Cockroaches, 17, 174, 318
instinct of, 109
Cocoa-nut palms, 2
Cocos, 256
Cocos butyracea, 232
Coelosis biloba, 84
Coffee, 4 ; plants, 60
Coleoptera, 315, 332, 379
Colocasia esculenta, 70
Colorado river, 2, 13, 14
Colour, differences in, correlated
with immunity from disease,
I83
Columbus, Christopher, 3
Colymbetes, 331
Comayagua, plain of, 378
Comelapa, 107
Comiens, 181
Comoapa, 107, 199
Concordia, 292
Condego, 286
Congo monkeys, 35
Consuelo lode, 89
Contrast between the ancient and
present inhabitants of central
America, 171
Coral snake, 320
tree, 345
Cordova, Hernando de, 341, 359
Coremia hirtipes, 380
*
394 INDEX.
Corrosive sublimate, 78
Corruption of names of places,
I07
Córtess, 116
Cosaguina, volcano of, 350
Cosmºsonia Titania, 380
Couvade, the custom of the, 366-
369
Coyotes, 48
Cranes, 3
Crantor, On the island Atlantis,
271
Craac globicera, 121
Creepers, 20, 122
Crematoaaster, 220
Crickets, 22
Cross, the sign of the, 168
Crosses, 166
Cuapo, rock of, 55
Cuba, 55
Cuckoo-spit, 230
‘Curassow, 121
Cyanocittà melanocyanea, 238
Cybister, 332
“Cyclones, 300-307
origin of, 301
—— West Indian, 306
Cyrtodeira Chontalensis, 116
MDAINTREE, Mr. R., on auriferous
veinstones, 96
Darailly, 248
Darlingtonia, Californica, 184
Darwin on animals and plants,
332; on continual varieties in
the same direction, 208 ; on
the effect of slight differences
of colour, 182; on fertilization
of Scarlet runner, 70; on fossil
maize in Peru, 54 ; on fresh-
water mollusks, 334 ; on the
humble bee, 132; on migrations
of butterflies, 153 ; on natives
of Terra del Fuego, 172
Decomposition of the rocks in
the forest region, 86
I)eer, 252 .
hunter, 252
I)efoliation of tree, 72
Degeneration of inhabitants of
Central America, 171, 177
JDelia this nivea (Bates), 180
Delta of the San Juan, I
Deluge, traditions of the
Denudation, 263
Depilto, 256
Desmiphora fasciculata, 7
Deterioration of lodes in depth,
90
Diabase, 96
Diaz de Castillo, on the use of
cement by the Indians, 254
Dicoteles tajacw, 30
Diego, San, 324
Difference between artificial and
natural selection, 207
Digitalis purpurea, 131
Diodorus Siculus, 368
Dioryte, 96
Diorytic intrusive rocks, 96
JDiphyrama singularis (Bates),
315
Diriangan, 358
Distribution of gold in
veins, 91
Dogs, hairless, 205
Doleryte, 86
Domed nests, 291 .
Domingo, Santo, 60, 62, 85, 376
- commissioner's
house at, 66
—— mines at, 376
rain at, 104
———— watershed of,
104 -
Dove, M., on origin of cyclones,
301
Dragon-flies, 299
Drosera, 184
Drought in Matacalpa, 288
Drowning man saved by being
lassoed, 188
Du Tertre, 366
Ducks, 44
— Muscovy, 44
whistling, 44
Duncan, Prof., on the submergence
of Isthmus of Darien in
Miocene times, 264
Dytiscidae, 331, 332
, 272
quartz
INDEX. 395.
|EAGLE, monkey-eating, 117
Easter Island, 269
JEciton hamata, 20
predator, 17
Ecitons, 17, 22
Egrets, 44
white, 44
Elam, Jacob, 375
Elaps, 320
Elateridae, 379
Elephantiasis, 160
JElizabeth steamer, 388
Elote, 54
Elvan dykes, 96
Emigration in Nicaragua, 386,
387
Endives, 70
Epidemic amongst insects, 181
–– amongst wasps in Great
Britain, 181
Epiphytes, 6, 57, 183
Eriosoma, 229
Erythrina, 130, 345
cacao made from, 345
Esquipula, 52
Iºssequibo, carved rocks of, 53
Estely, 249
Eumomota superciliaris, 158
Evander mobilis (Bates), 317
Extinction of intermediate va-
rieties that connected extreme
forms, 182
FAIRBAIRN, Mr., 154
Farina, 55
Fauna of the Malay Archipelago,
268
Felspar, 97
Ferns, 6, 57, 238
Fertilisation of flowers by birds,
I 30
foxglove, 131
marcgravia, 130
palosabre, 130
Festa, 49
Festivals, 278, 287
Fig-trees, 66, 69
Fireflies, 103, 317
Fissure-veins, 87
Flight of birds that soar, 200
Floating plants, 44
Florida, 55
Flour-mill, 296
Flowers, 279
fertilised by birds, 130
insects, 70
Florisuga mellivora, 111
Fly-catchers, 123, 158, 291,
313
Foraging ants, 198
Forbes, Mr. David, on auriferous
quartz veins, 96
Forest of the Atlantic slope, 57,
185
Forest region, limit of the, 185
effect
of fertilisation on the, 186
Forest vegetation, 58
Fornicarium, 72
Foxglove, fertilisation of, 131
Franklin on whirlwind in Mary-
land, 302
Fresh-water animals, 331
plants, 331
Frogs, 321
in Peña Blanca, 143
GAGE, THOMAS, on the Indians’
respect for their priest, 282
Garrapatós, 210
Glacial beds, 248, 260
— period, 264
— scratches, 260
Glaciers, 263
Glands on plants, 219
Gneiss, 258, 277
Goascoran valley, 378
Gold, 88
bars, 93
—— distribution of, in quartz
veins, 91
—— concentration of, near the
surface, 89
mining, 86
Gosse, P., on grassquit of Ja
maica, 291
Gourd-shaped pottery, 47
Gracias ā Dios, Cape, 3
Granada, 341, 345
courts of law at, 345
*s-ºs-ºs-
396
INDEX.
Hewitson, W. C., 479
Hickory, 46
Hides, 4, 342
Hollenbeck, Mr., 9, 4, 42, 374, 380,
388 .
Homoptera, 226
Honduras, Gulf of, 378
Honey glands, 219
Hornet, 319
Horse-flies, 313
Horses, 48
Hot winds of Australia, 305
Huaco, 202
Huexlotl, 205
Humble bee, 70
Humboldt on hairless dogs, 205
on origin of the Mexican.
and Eastern Asiatics,
370-373
on origin of whirlwinds,.
301
Humming-birds, 58, 159, 315
— abundance of, 139°
—— nests of, 140
rapidity of flight,
140
*-* * *mºm,
Granitic intrusive rocks, 96
Grass, Pará, 308
Guinea, 308
Grasshoppers, 18
Grassquit, 291
Graves of chiefs, 169
Indian, 154
Green, Dr., 4
Greenstone, 86, 96
Gregarious birds, 123
Grenadillos, 66, 69
Greytown, 1, 4, 13
—— trade of, 4
—— salubrity of, due to its
flatness, 5
Grouse, 122
Guatuse, the, 38
Guatuses, Indians, 37
Guava jelly, 6
Guayava, 156
-— trees, 6
Guiana, British, food of the people
of, 55
Guinea grass, 141, 308
Gwmmiferae, 218
Guzman, Senor Fernando, 346
Gyrinidae, 299, 331
Gyrinus, 331
HALF-BREEDs, 63
Harlequin beetle, 34
Hart, Prof., on glacial drift in
South America, 265; on the
elevation of Brazil in the glacial
period, 267
Hawk, crab-eating, 161
Hawks, 128, 257, 340
Hayti, 55
Heavy rains, 104
Heer, Prof., on the Miocene Flora,
265
Heliconiae, 13, 15, 58
Heliconidae, 7, 384
Heliconii, the, 266, 316
JHeliomaster pallidiceps, 112, 130
Heliothria: barroti, 113
Helix, 333
Hemiptera, 315
Herrania purpurea, 116
Hesperidae, 108
bathing, 137
fertilising flowers,
13].
tongue of, 113
Humuya valley, 378
JHydrophilidae, 331
Hydrophilus, 331
Hymenoptera, 27, 28
IIypoclinea, sp., 20, 181, 227
E--ms-s--
“IBIs,” the, 377
Ice, influence of, in volcanic erup-
tions, 356
Icteridae, 290
Icterus pectoralis (Wagl.), 328
Iguana, the, 338, 339
Igneous injections, 97
India-rubber, 4, 32–34, 39, 328,
342
Indian antiquities, 50, 165
———— carvings, 217
children, 38
—— cooking vessels, 293
INDEX.
Indian graves, 154, 166, 169,
—— houses, 40
—— love of flowers, 279
——— names of towns, 293
Indians, brown, 364
red, 365
origin of the, 363
——— wholesale baptism of, by
Spanish conquerors, 167
Indigo, 4, 297, 328, 342
Indolence of natives, 298
Insect life at night, 174
—— traps, 183
Insectivorous birds, 7
Insects, instinct of, 313
–– mimetic, 315, 381
Instinct of ants, 26
butterflies, 109
— cockroaches, 109
Interoceanic canal, 36
Iscodes bovis, 209
- -
-*
397
JACANAs, 3, 158
Jaguar, 30, 144, 174,286
Jamaily, 251
Janson, Mr., 380
Jatropha manihot, 70
Javali lode, 89
mine, 60
river, 106
Jicara, 46, 156
Jinotego, 204, 240, 293
José, San, 15, 45
— plains, 374
Juan, San, river, 1, 15, 35
— bar of, 2; del Norte, I
Juigalpa river, 150, 156, 157, 163,
I76
RIDNEY-BEANs, 73
I(ingfishers, 158
Kingsley, Canon, account of vol-
canic eruption of St. Vincent.
350-355; on the dry land con-
necting the islands of the West
Indies, 267
JKotzebue's voyage round the world,
372
LACANDONES of Guatemala, 155
Lagoon, 5
Lamellicorns, 379
Lampyridae, 317
Land-shells of the West Indies, 238
Landslips, 86, 95
Las Lajas, 60
Lasso, 189
Laurentium rock, 259
Laziness of natives, 245
Lead, 89
Leaf-cutting ant, the, 127, 219, 225
—w destructive-
ness of, 73 ; method of eradicat-
ing, 77 ; growers of mushrooms,
79; mests of, 80, 81 ; food of,
81 ; duties, &c., 82; reasoning
powers, 83
Leaf-hoppers, 226
— ants attending, 227
wasps attending, 223
Leaf-insect, 8, 381
Legrand d’Aussy, 367
Lenca Indians, 155
Leo Amontli, 356
Leptalides, 385
Lettuces, 70
Leucopterºus ghiesbreglºti, 340
Lianas, 6, 33, 57
Libertad, 150
— mines, 95, 150
Lime, 74
trees, 65
stone, 310
Lizards, 12, 312
-- tree, 339, 340
Locust, 19
Lodes, 86; Consuelo, 89 ; San
I3enito, 89 ; San Antonio, 89 ;
Javali, 89
Lodes, deterioration in depth of,
90 ; direction of, 86 ; dip of, 86
Logwood, 4 -
Longicorn beetles, 7, 69, 104, 127,
159, 173, 180, 379, 380
Lorenzo, San, 323
Los Cocos, 330
Louisiana, 55
Lowering of the level of the sea in
the glacial period, 266
Lymnaea, 333
398
INDEX. .*
Lymnaeacea, 333
MACAws, 196 -
Maceio, subject to fevers, 5
Machuca, 31
Mackleania, 142
Madeira peaks, 147
Mahogany, 34, 328
Malacatoyo river, 314
Malayan dialects, 269
Mallocera spinocollis (Bates), 315
Maize, 53–56, 328, 386
– cultivation of, 53
eaters, 54, 55
—— stone grinders, 55
food of the people of north-
east Brazil, 55 ; of Mexico, 55 ;
of British Guiana, 55 ; of western
side of tropical America, 55 ; of
the Caribs, 55
Mammalia, 28
Mandioca, 55
Mango trees, 4, 66
Mangos, 161 -
Manihot aipim, 55
Mantos, origin of, 95 -
Marcgravia nepenthoides, 128, 129
Marcgravia fertilized by birds, 130
— pitchers of, 130
Masaya, 330, 346; lake of, 346.
347, 355; volcano of, 347, 355;
strata at, 348; origin of strata at,
349
Masaya Indians, marriage custom
of, 36
Matagalpa, 203, 217, 231
Mauray, l’rof. T. B., on origin of
cyclones, 301
Mayas, 156
of Yucatan, 363
McCrae, Colonel, 32
Melastomae, 13, 58, 222
Melzer, 60
Membracis, 226
Mercury, 93, 94.
Metlate, 56, 293
Mestayer M., 341
Mestizos, 92
Mexico, maize in, 55
food of people of, 55
Miasma, 6 -
Miau-tsze, 367, 369
Mice, 23
Michel, 367
Mico river, 52, 150, 151, 188
Microchera parvirostris, 138
Microscopical cavities in rocks, 97
Migrations of butterflies, 152
Miguel, San, volcano, 350
Miguelito, San, 177
Mimetic forms, 8 ; explanation of,
83
º)
— insects, 315, 381
Mineral veins, 96; formation of, 99.
Mineralogical specimens, 99
Miners, Indian, 63
|Mines, 86, 89 ; Javali, 60 ; Santo.
Domingo, 86 ; Libertad, 95 ; El
Coquimba, 258
Miocene Flora, 265
Mirage, 300
Mocomi, the, 209
Mollusks, marine and freshwater,
335; land and fresh-
water, 332—337
—— Melania, genus of, 336
wº- of the isthmus of Darien, ,
264
Mombacho, volcano of, 345
Momotus lessoni, 123
martii, 123
Monkeys, 35 ; Sagacity of, 119 ; ;
speech of, 120
—— white-faced, 118–120,
316, 341
Momedula Surinamensis(Fabr.),313.
Montezuma, 47
Mordellidae, 318 -
More, Sir Thomas, account of
Utopia, 29
Morphos, 7
Morren, Dr., 70
Mosas, 63
Mosquitoes, 14, 32,
Moss insect, 382
Moths, 104, 174
—— migratory, 153
Mot-mots, 16, 22, 122, 123, 158,
199
*s-
108,874, 875.
——— tails of, 124
Mountain hens, 121
Mules, 48
INDEX. 399
Mules, bitten by spiders, 323
———- Sagacity of, 189; thieves,
256
Murderers, punishment of in Ni-
caragua, 275
Muscovy ducks, 203
Muy-muy, 214
Mycetes palliatus, 35
Mygale, 323
Myriapods, 140
NAMES of natural features of a
country important in an inquiry
as to the original inhabitants,
106 ; of places corrupted, 107
Nahuatls, 44, 155, 364, 365, 370,
371, 373
Nancito, 6, 156
Nandasme, 358
Nectarina, 228
Negroes, 63
Nelson, Lord, capture of Castillo, 31
Neoclytus CEsopus (Bates), 315
Nephila, 108, 317
Nequen, 360
Nests, of birds, 289; of wasps, 290
Neuwied, Primce Maximiliam, on
nest of Tody, 291
Nicaragua, bird fauna of, 377 ;
civil war in, 342 ; conquest of
by Spaniards, 359 ; division of,
into three zones, 328 ; emigra-
tion in, 386, 387 ; insects of,
379
Nicaragua, name of chief, 359
Nicaraguan judges, 105
——- soldiers, 63
Nicaraguans, hospitality of, 275,
285 ; litigious, 105
and Mexicans closely
related, 362
Nicoya, Gulf of, 359
Night-jars, 174
Nispera, 92, 116
Nispral, 59 .
Nocturnal animals, 173
OCALCA, 216
Ocelots, 174
Ocon, Senor Trinidad, 328
Ocotal, 255
OEcodoma, 71–84
Olama, 203
“Old man's beard,” 237
Omotepec, 43; island of, 362;
peaks, 147
Onions, 70
Oniscus, 115
Opossums, 23, 174
Orange trees, 4, 65, 68
Orchids, 6 ; on Peña Blanca, 142
Ore, extraction of, 92; reduction
of, 93 ; testing cé, 89
Orinoco, carved rocks of, 53
Orinthorhynchos, 142
Oropendula, 290
Orthopetra, 381
Owls, 174
PALACAGUINA, 249, 283
Palms, 4, 13, 35, 58
Palosabre, 130
Papaws, 66
Papilio, 108, 299
Pará grass, 141, 308
Melastomae at, 224
Parasites, 84 ; on wasps' nests, 134
Parasitical insects, 209
Parrot, green-leek, 197
Parrots, 6, 22, 158
Parsley, 70
Passiflora quadrangularis, 69
Passion-flower, 224
Patagonia, migrations of butterflies,
153
Paton, Mr., 5
Pavon, 60
Pavónes, 121
Pávos, 121
Peaches, 183
Peas, 70
Pediculi, 210
Pedrarias, 359
Peña Blanca, ascent of, 143; rocks
of, 146, 148; precipice of, 146
Penelope, 121
Pentaloma pumicea, 127
Peopling of barren spots, 246
Pernambuco, healthiness of, 5
-400
INDEX.
Beroxide of manganese, 89
— iron, 89
Peru, maize found in raised beaches
and tombs, 55
Petasphora delphince, 112
Petrels, 201
Phaethorius longirostris, 130
Phalangidae, 19
Phoenecothraupis fusicauda, 128
Phaseolus multiflorus, 70
Phasma, 383
Pheidole, sp. 181, 224, 227
Phenax, 229
‘Plutonic intrusive rocks, 97
IPhosphorescent myriapods, 141
JPhysa, 333
Pigs, wild, 10, 30
JPigeons, 46
— wild, 158
Pine-apples, 66
trees, 216, 236
Pinuela, the, 254
Pinul, 293
Pinullo, 293
Pinus tenuifolia, 238
Pionia lycoides (Walker), 317
Pisoti, 120, 339
Pita, 57
Pital, 53
Plains, 46, 51
Planorbis, 331, 333
Plant-lice, 71, 226
Plantains, 12, 67, 386
T'lantain-trees, 345
Plato, on the island of Atlantis, 270
Platyrhynchus, 123
Plerochroza, 382
Pliocene period, 264
IPlough, Nicaraguan, 239
Polistes can'ni fea, 135
Polybia, occidentalis, 220
Polyrhapis Fabricii, 380
Pompilus polistoides. 133
Borphyritic dykes, 97
Port Just, veins of granite and
quartz at, 97
Pot-holes, 163.
Pottery, 32, 154; ancient Indian,
154; gourd-shaped, 47
Pouches in Melastomae, 223
Precipice at Peña T3|anca, 146
Priocnemis, 319
Priomyrhynchus carinatus, 123
Pseudomyrma ants, 23
Pseudomyrma bicolor, 219
Psidium, sp., 6
La Puerta, 324
Pulque, 232
Pumpkins, 66, 70
QUARTZ, 89; conglomerate, 253,
286 ; rock, 258; veins, 86
Quebrada de Santo Domingo, 106
Quequisquea, 70
Quesal, the, 247
Quiches, 155
Quiscalus, 213, 329
RAFAEL, San, 242
Ramphastus tocard, 124, 197
Ramphocoelus passerinii, 6, 12S
— sanguinolentus, 128
*
Rats, 23
Rattles, Indian, 154
Reasoning powers in insects, 137
Reeve, Mr. Lovell, on mollusks, 33:
Retorts, 93
Rio Frio, 32, 37; expeditions up,
37 ; Indians of, 32
Rio Grande, 204
—- Mico, 52, 150, 151, 188
—- Plata, migrations of butterflies,
I 53
—- Wanks, 255
Rivers, names of, 203
Rocks, carved, of Orinoco, 53 ; of
Essequibo, 53; of Virgin Islands,
53
Rosa villosa, 226
Rose, glands on, 225
Rosechafer, 127
SALTO, El, 163
Salvin, Mr. Osbert, 377
Sanate, the 213
Sand-flies, 103
Santarem, wasps at, 135
Sap, rise of, 233
Sarcopti, 211
INDEX. - 401
Sarracemia, 184
Savallo river, 35
Savannahs, 46, 51
Scale insects, 222, 225
Scarlet-runners, 70
Schomburgk, 53
Sclater, Dr., on the species of Crax,
I2] -
Scorpions, 22, 174
Season, dry, 2 ; wet, 1
San Sebastian, 50
Seemann, Mr., 374, 375
Segovia, townships of, 254
Selection, artificial and natural,
difference between, 207
Self-government of the small In-
dian towns, 282
Seripiqui river, 15
Sharks, 3
Sharp, Dr. D., on water-beetles, 332
Shells, 331 ; of the Caribbean pro-
vince, 264; of the Panamic pro-
vince, 264
Silkworms, 183
Silver, 88
- - mine, 258
Simpson, Dr. J. H., 76
Siphonia elastica, 33
Sisitote, 50, 328
Sisitotis, 159
Skunk, the, 174, 249, 320
Slavery, 64
Snakes, 159 -
Social flocks of birds, 12
— - trees, 237
Soldiers, Nicaraguan, 63
Sodium used in amalgamation, 93,
94
-- action of, on mercury, 94
Solenopsis, sp., 181, 226
Sontuli, 288
Sorby, Mr. H. C., on microscopical
cavities in quartz, 97
Souffrière, the, 351
Spaniards, invasion of Nicaragua
by, 359; cruelties practised by,
361.
Spermophila oblivacea, 29
Spiders, 8, 17, 19, 110, 174, 314,
315, 317 -
Spider-monkeys, 117, 118, 341
Spiniger luteicornis (Walk.), 319
Spiny plants and trees, 46
Spiranthes autumnalis, fertilisation
of by humble bee, 132
Spoons, horn, for testing ores, 89.
Spruce, Mr. R., on migrations of
butterflies, 153
Squiers, Mr., 362; on the Lenca
Indians, 155
Squatters, 13
Stamps, 93
Staphylimidae, 81
Statues, 165; mutilation of, 167 ;
stories of, on banks of the Rio
Mico, 53
Steamboats on San Juan, 41
Steamers, river, 42
Still, native, 233
Stone axes, 154
- hatchet, 41
- implements, 32, 41
—-- maize-grinders, 165, 293
Storekeepers, Nicaraguan, 62
Stove, Indian, 244
Strabo, 367
Sugantia, 140
Sugar, 4, 56, 328, 342, 386
—- cane, 56, 67
- plantations, 56
Sugarloaf hills, 179
Suiti, 40
Sulphate of silver, 89
Sulphide of copper, 89
— — — iron, 89
Sun-dews, 184
Superheated steam in rock, 9S
Swallows, 159
Sweet potatoes, 70
Swordsmen, 293
Swietonia mahogant, 34
Tabanus, 313
Tablasón, 193
Talcose schists, 253, 260
Tanagers, 6, 35, 122
Tapir, 144 º
Tarantula spider, 323
Techichi, the, 206
Termites, 181
Thalae, the god of rain, 168
ly 19
462 INDEX.
Thaberania venusta, 138
Thecloe, 299
Theobroma cacao, 116
Theopompus, on a large island out-
side of Europe, Asia, and Africa,
270 wº
Thomisus, 110
Thunderbolts, 154
Tibareni of Pontus, 367, 369
Ticks, 209
Tierrabona, 299
Tiger-beetles, 127, 159, 299
Tillandsia, 6, 183
Tillandsia usneoides, 237, 289
Timetes, 108
Timetes chiron, 152
Tinamws, 121
Tiste, 293, 326
Tody, the, 291
Toeniotes scalaris (Fabr.), 69, 181
Toledo, 161
Toltecs, 363
— the cultivators of maize, 55
Tomatoes, 70
Tongue of humming-bird, 113
woodpecker, 114
Tortillas, 56
Totagalpa, 253, 278
Toucans, 6, 22, 35, 122, 124
—- beak of, 197
Trachyte, 299
Trade of Greytown, 4
- winds, 5
Transported boulders, 262
Trap-rocks, 96 -
Trappeam dykes, 96, 98
Tree-cactus, 237
Tree-ferns, 15
Trend of ranges of San Domingo, 86
Trogons, 20, 22, 50, 122, 123, 162
Trogon atricollis, 122
- caligatus, 122
elegans, 162
—— females, dull-coloured, 122
——— melanocephalus (Gould), 50
— resplendens, 247
Trumpet tree, 222
Tschudi, on indigenous dogs of
tropical America, 206 -
Tufas, volcanic, 346
Tylor, Mr. Alfred, on the reduction
of the level of the sea, 266
Tylor, E. B., on the Convade, 368,
369 ; his early history of man-
kind, 366, 368, 369 ; on whirl-
winds in Mexico, 302 -
UBALDo, San, 45, 374
Ulleros, 33, 37, 39, 41
Ulli, 33
Unio, 331
Urania, leilus, 153
Utopia, 29
* *
WACQUEROs, 189, 191
Walleys, 85 ; denudation of, 86 ;
excavation of, 85
Value of the ore at Santo Domingo,
Vanilla planifolia, 57, 70
Vegessima, La., 4, 239
Welasquez, Don Francisco, 78
Wertebrata, 28
Widuas, 123
Vieni per aca, 290
Vincent, St., volcano in,
Canon Kingsley's
350-355
Virgin Islands, carved rocks of, 53
Wolcanoes: Caraccas, 351 ; Cosa-
guina, 350 ; Masaya, 347, 355;
San Miguel, 350 ; St. Vincent,
350
Wultures, 200
350 ;
account of,
WALLACE, A. R., on Angraecum,
sesquipedale, 133; on brightly-
coloured caterpillars, 320 ; on
the faunas of the Malay archi-
pelago, 268
War, not always a curse, 171
Wari, 30, 35
Wasps, 7, 22, 157, 313
attending leaf-hoppers, 228;
hunting for spiders, 133; kill-
ing caterpillars, 135 ; nests of,
290; taking note of place to
which they wish to return, 135
INDEX. 403
Water-bearing plants, 183
Water-beetles, 174, 331, 332
Waterfall near Santo Domingo, 107
of El Salto, 163
Water liana, 232
West Indian cyclones, 306
Westwood, Professor, on nests of
Mygale, 323
Whirlwinds, 300-307
— origin of, 301
Whitecap, 138
White-faced monkey, 118–120, 316
341 -
Wine-palm, 232
Wolves, 48
Women, Nicaraguan, 64
Woodlouse, chased by ants, 115
Woodlice, 22, 174
Woodpeckers, 122, 123
- tongue of, 114
XICALLI, 47
Xilonen, 54 ; feast of, 54
Xilotl, 54
Xoloitzcuintli, the, 205
YALAGUINA, 253, 283
Yales, 248
Yucatan, the cross in, 168
Yuccas, 70
ZEOLITE, 299
Zones, the three, of Nicaragua, 328.
THE END.
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