Page:The Overland Monthly Volume 5 Issue 3.djvu/43



finishing it before the rains, if the same character of vegetation should continue all through. However, in spite of these obstacles, the shade afforded by the trees —which were so thick as completely to exclude the sun's rays—and the greater abundance of water, made the work in the forest less disagreeable than it had been in the savannas. It was some days before the party met with any running streams or springs; but the dejuco-vine, when freshly cut, yields a moderate supply of cool liquid from its stem, which enabled the party to satisfy their thirst tolerably well. Snakes, which had been a cause of some apprehension, owing to the peculiarly deadly character of some of the species found in those woods, gave but little trouble—incomparably less than would have been the case in an Asiatic or Australian jungle; and the deadly coral-snake, whose bite is certain death within an hour, only crossed their path two or three times during the three months they were engaged in the forest.

Indeed, in the depth of the forest there was a remarkable absence of animal life in any of its forms higher than insects; and for the first three weeks of the expedition, scarcely any quadrupeds or birds were seen, except a few wild turkeys. The natives accounted for this scarcity of game by a terrific tornado which had swept over the country two years before, destroying the animals along with the forests that sheltered them; but from whatever cause arising, the scarcity certainly existed, and added considerably to the difficulty of subsisting the party curing the survey.

The plain bordering the lake does not

extend far inland, and about twelve miles from San Migueliio the route began to cross various spurs of the dividing range, and at the same time the forest underwent a considerable modification in its character. India-rubber- trees, cedars, lance-vood, and mahoganies now formed a considerable part of it, and the hardness of most of the woods offered immense labor to the cutters. The Nicaraguan machete is in shape something like a very long hunting-knife, and, in the hands of those accustomed to its use, is a most effective instrument for cutting down brush or saplings, though inferior to an axe for felling large timber. Two of the Caribs, however, were provided with American axes for the latter purpose, and used them with the skill given by long practice in the mahogany cuttings, so that the advance was fully as rapid as could be made by any White laborers. Nevertheless, a month after leaving San Miguelito, it was found that the rate of progress altogether had been less than three-quarters of a mile daily, even including the progress made in crossing the savannas. The steepness of the hills, and the hardness of the trees in the woods through which they were now passing, would have made a considerable diminution in this rate had it not been for the arrival of several fresh laborers, both Caribs and Nicaraguans, who reached the camp just as they commenced to ascend the dividing range. With this reinforcement, a rate of over half a mile a day was steadily maintained up to the end of March, when the party had advanced about twenty-two miles from their starting-point at San Miguelito.