Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/188

174 the pleasure of the company of his Excellency on a canter over the plain. The little chief proved a furious rider, and spurred his horse to a breakneck gait, so that I had the greatest difficulty to keep up with him. Jumping from his horse, he disappeared for a moment in the brush, and presently returned with some luscious pineapples, which he peeled and, cutting lengthwise, offered me to eat. Among the institutions at Pearl City is the brass band of fourteen pieces. The band is under the leadership of Mr. J. W. Cuthbert, Jr., the Secretary of the Executive Council of the Mosquito nation. The Sambos performed for our edification and to their own satisfaction for at least two hours. Among the tunes were some which I recognized as having done long service on our variety stage.

The genuine Mosquitos, although they number over six thousand, are rarely met with at the coast settlements. They do not care to observe the restrictions put upon them by the local authorities in clothing themselves. Scantiness of dress is characteristic of a true Mosquito Indian, and in the interior of the country they can be observed in all their natural simplicity of costume. It must be admitted that for this hot, moist climate this is not an unreasonable state of affairs. I was fortunate in securing pictures of a number of groups of natives, both of the true Mosquito and of the Sambo variety, and some of these, with a picture of a native "shack" or bamboo house, are shown in the illustrations. Besides the banana and mahogany, the Mosquito country has other valuable resources. In its northern portion the country has extensive savannas covered with luxuriant grass the whole year round, affording admirable opportunities for cattle-raising. This business is yet in its infancy, but promises to assume respectable proportions. Cotton blooms wild and will bear through the entire year; sugar cane will produce a crop every seven months \ rice, every four months; and oranges, lemons, limes, pineapples, and a host of other fruit grow wild. The upper runs of the northern rivers and creeks have gold-bearing sand, and it is not impossible that some day the "Reserve" will take rank as a gold-producing country.

"amber and jade" mines of Upper Burma have been visited by Dr. Noettling, who has reported upon them to the Geological Survey of India. The "amber" is a fossil resin corresponding with that called burmite, fluorescent, looking like solidified kerosene oil, and darker and harder than ordinary amber. The "jade" is jadeite, worked in pit and quarry mints for forty miles along the bank of the Uru River and on the top of a plateau at Tammaw. The industry is a thriving one, employing five hundred men, and promises well for future more systematic and skilled development. White is the commonest color; green is rare; and some of the bowlders are red.