Ch. II.] COLORADO AEM OF THE SAX JUAX. IS 



forest, which now consisted of a great variety of 

 dicotyledonous trees with many tall, graceful palms ; 

 the undergrowth being ferns, small palms, Melastomse, 

 Heliconian, &c. The houses at the plantations were 

 mostly miserable thatched huts with scarcely any furni- 

 ture, the owners passing most of their time swinging in 

 dirty hammocks, and occasionally taking down a canoe- 

 load of plantains to Greytown for sale. It is one of the 

 rarest sights to see any of these squatters at work. 

 Their plantain patch and occasionally some fish from the 

 river suffice to keep them alive and indolent. 



At seven o'clock we reached the Colorado branch, 

 which carries off the greater part of the waters of the 

 San Juan to the sea. This is about twenty miles above 

 Greytown, but only eighteen by the Colorado to the 

 sea, and is near the head of the delta, as I have already 



v 



mentioned. The main body of water formerly flowed 

 down past Greytown, and kept the harbour there open, 

 but a few years ago, during a heavy flood, the river 

 greatly enlarged and deepened the entrance to the 

 Colorado Channel, and since then year by year the Grey- 

 town harbour has been silting up. Xow, (I am writing in 

 1873) there is twelve feet of water 011 the bar at the 

 Colorado in the height of the dry season, whilst at 

 Greytown the outlet of the river is sometimes closed 

 altogether. The merchants at Greytown have enter- 

 tained the project of dredging out the channel again, 

 but now that the river has found a nearer way to the 

 sea by the Colorado this would be a herculean task, and 

 it would cost much less money to move the whole town 

 to the Colorado, and then by dredging the bar there a 

 fine harbour might easilv be made, but unfortunately 



