Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/182

168 River. On each side the luxuriant and dense vegetation overhangs the water, a virgin jungle, whose somber shade the brightest sunlight fails to pierce. Flaming red herons rise and flutter or stand in comic solemnity watching us as we pass; gaudy macaws flash their flaring plumage among the leaves and utter hoarse cries as the boat wends its way; close to the shore, among the fallen trees and snags, huge alligators, innocent as yet of a knowledge of rifle ball or hunter, lift their ugly beaks in mute wonder at our intrusion upon their gloomy retreat. Indeed, a river trip is not necessary to see all this, a mile back of the town of Bluefields is the same impenetrable jungle. A meeting with a native tiger or jaguar is not an unusual occurrence in the outskirts, while in the rainy season, alligators from the lagoons are not too timid to carry off pigs and goats from the settlements.

After about twenty miles of steaming through those dark and gloomy channels, it is a pleasurable sensation to come upon the first clearing and see once more a sign of human activity. On every side are now evidences of thrift and industry. The picturesque houses of the planters, built of bamboo after the pattern of the native shacks and thatched with palm leaves, standing under the shade of tall cocoanut trees, make an ideal picture of tropic life. As the steamer lies to, for the purpose of landing supplies at many of the banana plantations, an excellent opportunity is given to study the manner of cultivation, if such it can be called. The only implement used by the cultivators is the machete, the universal native tool and weapon all in one; it is a rather long and broad knife, something between a broadsword and a cleaver in appearance. With the aid of this implement the native first clears the land of jungle and brush, each man being required to cut at least one "task" (twenty square yards) per day. Although this is only two or three hours' work, it is seldom that a native will do more than one task in a day. The natural inclination to work is of the faintest character. Nature has so bountifully provided all the necessaries of life that there would be no incentive to make money were it not for the passion for gambling, and a game of chance is the one thing the natives never seem too tired to engage in. The brush thus cleared is burned during the dry season and the ground is now ready for the young plants or shoots. These are "suckers" taken from older trees, and after planting them singly at distances of about eight feet apart, nothing further is required than occasionally to clear out the large weeds which will crop up between them. In two years the trees mature, reaching a height of ten to fifteen feet and bearing from one to three bunches each.

There is no such thing as a crop or a harvest as we understand the term with our northern possessions. Every day in the