The Naturalist in Nicaragua Part 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.

CHAPTER 10.

Juigalpa.--A Nicaraguan family.--Description of the road from Juigalpa to Santo Domingo.--Comparative scarcity of insects in Nicaragua in 1872.--Water-bearing plants.--Insect-traps.--The south-western edge of the forest region.--Influence of cultivation upon it.--Sagacity of the mule.

CHAPTER 11.

Start on journey to Segovia.--Rocky mountain road.--A poor lodging.

--The rock of Cuapo.--The use of large beaks in some birds.

--Comoapa.--A native doctor.--Vultures.--Flight of birds that soar.

--Natives live from generation to generation on the same spot.--Do not give distinctive names to the rivers.--Caribs barter guns and iron pots for dogs.--The hairless dogs of tropical America.

--Difference between artificial and natural selection.--The cause of sterility between allied species considered.--The disadvantages of a covering of hair to a domesticated animal in a tropical country.

CHAPTER 12.

Olama.--The "Sanate."--Muy-muy.--Idleness of the people.--Mountain road.--The "Bull Rock."--The bull's-horn thorn.--Ants kept as standing armies by some plants.--Use of honey-secreting glands.

--Plant-lice, scale-insects, and leaf-hoppers furnish ants with honey, and in return are protected by the latter.--Contest between wasps and ants.--Waxy secretions of the h.o.m.opterous hemiptera.

CHAPTER 13.

Matagalpa.--Aguardiente.--Fermented liquors of the Indians.--The wine-palm.--Idleness of the Nicaraguans.--Pine and oak forests.

--Mountain gorge.--Jinotega.--Native plough.--Descendants of the buccaneers.--San Rafael.--A mountain hut.

CHAPTER 14.

Great range composed of boulder clay.--Daraily.--Lost on the savannahs.--Jamaily.--A deer-hunter's family.--Totagalpa.--Walls covered with cement and whitewashed.--Ocotal.--The valley of Depilto.--Silver mine.--Geology of the valley.--Glacial drift.--The glacial period in Central America.--Evidence that the ice extended to the tropics.--Scarcity of gold in the valley gravels.

--Difference of the Mollusca on the east and west coast of the Isthmus of Darien.--The refuge of the tropical American animals and plants during the glacial period.--The lowering of the sea-level.

--The land sh.e.l.ls of the West Indian Islands.--The Malay Archipelago.--Easter Island.--Atlantis.--Traditions of the deluge.

CHAPTER 15.

A Nicaraguan criminal.--Geology between Ocotal and Totagalpa.

--Preparations at Totagalpa for their annual festival.

--Chicha-drinking.--Piety of the Indians.--Ancient civilisation of tropical America.--Palacaguina.--Hospitality of the Mestizos.

--Curious custom at the festival at Condego.--Cross range between Segovia and Matagalpa.--Sontuli.--Birds' nests.

CHAPTER 16.

Concordia.--Jinotega.--Indian habits retained by the people.

--Indian names of towns.--Security of travellers in Nicaragua.

--Native flour-mill.--Uncomfortable lodgings.--Tierrabona.--Dust whirlwind.--Initial form of a cyclone.--The origin of cyclones.

CHAPTER 17.

Cattle-raising.--Don Filiberto Trano's new house.--Horse-flies and wasps.--Teustepe.--Spider imitating ants.--Mimetic species.

--Animals with special means of defence are conspicuously marked, or in other ways attract attention.--Accident to horse.--The "Mygale."--Illness.--Conclusion of journey.

CHAPTER 18.

Division of Nicaragua into three zones.--Journey from Juigalpa to lake of Nicaragua.--Voyage on lake.--Fresh-water sh.e.l.ls and insects.--Similarity of fresh-water productions all over the world.

--Distribution of European land and fresh-water sh.e.l.ls.--Discussion of the reasons why fresh-water productions have varied less than those of the land and of the sea.