Page:Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley.djvu/30

22 rock one hundred feet in height, piling up such vast masses of spray that it was well-nigh impossible to take a photograph. I finally succeeded, however, with great difficulty in taking one.

According to a statement of the men, "the petrifaction of a large antediluvian animal" is visible on a boulder when the water is low in the basin at the foot of the falls. An American told me, however, that this petrifaction was only about thirty centimetres long, and was a very distinct and pretty representation of a fish. While I was encamped near the waterfall all these rocks were under the water, and therefore I could not inspect the fossil.

The Mistolhá flows into the Baxcan, which in its turn is a tributary of the Rio de San Pedro Savana.

Having retraced our steps to the monteria of Mr. McQueen, we rested there for a day, enjoying the agreeable society of that gentleman, and then we turned towards Sulusúm and Palenque.

  V.

PETHÁ.

After exploring the route from Chinikihá to Palenque, I found it necessary to return to my headquarters in Tenosique to organize a second expedition, — this time for the exclusive purpose of rediscovering the long since forgotten Lake of Pethá. Having engaged new men and procured fresh provisions, in the middle of August, 1898, I went for the second time to the montería La Reforma, where I had left my luggage. The rainy season in the mean time had set in in full force, the forest paths were soaked, and all the rivers and brooks were swollen. Nevertheless, very fine weather might be expected even at this season.

The first part of the road, which has been built by the firm of Romano from La Reforma to Tzendales, running directly through the wilderness, is excessively bad, because the workmen found no firm, stony soil, but only black forest loam. This ground is so boggy throughout the entire year that not even those who laid out the road ventured to use it with their horses or mules. Each traveller, therefore, at the beginning of this road endeavors to take certain circuitous paths leading from abandoned lumber camps, and only strikes into the actual camino de los Tzendales at the Chocolhá. We too followed the general practice, and when on the 27th of August I was able to start from La Reforma with my men and mules, after crossing the Chinikihá we took the narrow forest trail to the abandoned montería of El Clavo, about three leagues from La Reforma, where the forsaken huts afforded us sufficient shelter from the rain during the night.