Part 2 (1/2)

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.

CHAPTER 3.

Journey up river continued.--Wild pigs and jaguar.--Bungos.--Reach Machuca.--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 boatmen.--San Carlos.--Interoceanic ca.n.a.l.--Advantages of the Nicaraguan route.

--The Rio Frio.--Stories about the wild Indians.--Indian captive children.--Expeditions up the Rio Frio.--American river steamboats.

CHAPTER 4.

The lake of Nicaragua.--Ometepec.--Becalmed on the lake.--White egrets.--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.--Vegetation of the forest.--Muddy roads.--Arrive at Santo Domingo.

CHAPTER 5.

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; probably not indigenous to America: propagated from shoots: do not generally mature their seeds.--Fig-trees.--Granadillas and papaws.--Vegetables.

--Dependence of flowers on insects for their fertilisation.--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 them ascending young trees.--Leaf-cutting ants are fungus-growers and eaters.--Sagacity of the ants.

CHAPTER 6.

Configuration of the ground at Santo Domingo.--Excavation of valleys.--Geology of the district.--Decomposition of the rocks.

--Gold-mining.--Auriferous quartz veins.--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 veins: their connection with intrusions of Plutonic rocks.

CHAPTER 7.

Climate of the north-eastern side of Nicaragua.--Excursions around Santo Domingo.--The Artigua.--Corruption of ancient names.

--b.u.t.terflies, spiders, and wasps.--Humming-birds, beetles, and ants.--Plants and trees.--Timber.--Monkey attacked by eagle.

--White-faced monkey.--Anecdotes of a tame one.--Cura.s.sows and other game birds.--Trogons, woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, mot-mots, and toucans.

CHAPTER 8.

Description of San Antonio valley.--Great variety of animal life.

--Pitcher-flowered Marcgravias.--Flowers fertilised 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.

--Singular myriapods.--Ascent of Pena Blanca.--Tapirs and jaguars.

--Summit of Pena Blanca.

CHAPTER 9.

Journey to Juigalpa.--Description of Libertad.--The priest and the bell.--Migratory b.u.t.terflies 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.