30 PHYSICAL FEATURES ETC. 
route sufficieatly to enable us to return to camp in safety. ‘The Volcan de Agua is 
very similar to the Fuego, though somewhat less in height, but there is a fairly good 
mule track nearly to the summit. This track is frequented by the Indians, who 
ascend the mountain for the purpose of charcoal-burning and also in search of ice, 
which they found in the old crater in sufficient quantity to supply the needs of the 
Capital at that time. 
Having made considerable collections, we returned to Guatemala City and, recrossing 
the Motagua River and the Chuacus Range of mountains, took up our abode at San 
Gerénimo, a sugar-cane plantation in the plain of Salama, in Baja Vera Paz. The 
surrounding mountains are clothed with forest composed of various trees, including 
pines. The plain itself is arid, except when irrigated for cultivation, as at the 
Hacienda of San Gerénimo. We next proceeded to Coban through the district north 
of the plain of Salama. The road soon leaves the plain, and the broken country is 
covered with scrub and forest, the rainfall being much greater as one approaches Coban 
than on the Pacific side of the Cordillera. During the rainy season there is usually 
a severe thunderstorm in the afternoon, followed by a clear sky, but during the dry 
season little or no rain falls and vegetation suffers greatly. In Alta Vera Paz and 
towards the Atlantic rain apparently falls at all seasons and all hours, and vegetation 
is consequently much more abundant. : 
At Tactic, a forest district near the head of the Polochic River, our porters failed 
to arrive, and we were forced to spend the night without our baggage. It was so 
bitterly cold that in the morning the ground and even the backs of our mules were 
covered with hoar-frost. A few days later, on our return journey, the effects of the 
unprecedently low temperature were plainly visible on the vegetation around. On 
reaching Coban we found a large Indian village where the inhabitants were born 
collectors, and very soon they brought in, in almost embarassing numbers, specimens of 
birds, frogs, toads, lizards, snakes, and insects of all kinds. ‘The natives there were 
specially expert in the use of the blow-pipe, with which they killed most of the 
smaller birds. The weapon consisted of a straight piece of hollow wood about 
eight feet long, and the projectile, a hardened pellet of clay, fitted closely into the 
groove of the pipe and was blown from the mouth by the marksman. In this way 
a large number of birds was obtained with little or no damage to the plumage. Such 
was the accuracy of aim that, even at a distance of from 15 to 20 yards, many 
humming-birds were killed. 
After some weeks spent in collecting at Coban we visited Cubilguitz and Choctum 
in the low damp forest of Alta Vera Paz, thence travelling towards Salinas in the 
humid valley of the Chixoy or Rio de la Pasion, a tributary of the Usumacinta River. 
The roads or tracks made by the natives were extremely bad in this locality, the 
eround very broken, and the soil a stiff clay, so slippery in places that it was scarcely 
