h. II.] BOAT JOURNEY UP THE SAX JUAN. 15 



but it was full of holes, and let in the water in little 

 streams, so that I was soon soaked to the skin. Alto- 

 gether, with the streaming wet and the mosquitoes, it 

 was one of the most uncomfortable nights I have ever 

 passed. 



The waning moon was sufficiently high at four o'clock 

 to allow us to bring the long dreary night to an end, and 

 to commence paddling up the river again. As the day 

 broke the rain ceased, the mists cleared away, our 



V * 



spirits revived, and we forgot our discomforts of the 

 night in admiration of the beauties of the river. The 

 banks were hidden by a curtain of creeping and twining 

 plants, many of which bore beautiful flowers, and the 

 greenery was further varied here and there by the 

 white stems of the cecropia trees, ^"ow and then we 

 passed more open spots, affording glimpses each into the 

 forest, where grew, in the dark shade, slender-stemmed 

 palms and beautiful tree-ferns, contrasting with the 

 great leaves of the Heliconioc. At seven we breakfasted 

 on a sand-bank, and got our clothes and blankets dried. 

 There were numerous tracks of alligators, but it was too 

 early to look for their eggs in the sand ; a month later, 

 in March, when the river falls, they are found in 

 abundance, and eaten by the canoe-men. At noon we 

 reached the point where the Seripiqui, a river coming 

 down from the interior of Costa Rica, joins the San 

 Juan about thirty miles above Greytown. The Seri- 

 piqui is navigable by canoes for about twenty miles from 

 this point, and then commences a rough mountain mule- 

 track to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. WQ 

 paddled on all the afternoon with little change in the 

 river. At eight we anchored for the night, and 



