Ch. IV.] ARRIVAL AT SAN UBALDO. 45 



were abundant on the lake, and on these the white 

 egrets and other wading birds often alighted. The boat- 

 men told me and the story is likely enough to be true 

 that the alligators, floating about like logs, with their 

 eyes above the water, watch these birds, and, moving 

 quietly up until within a few yards of them, sink down 

 below r the surface, come up underneath them, catch them 

 by the leg, and drag them under water. Besides the 

 alligators, large freshwater sharks appear to be common 

 in the lake. Sometimes, when in shallow water, we saw 

 a pointed billow rapidly moving away from the boat, 

 produced by some large fish below, and I was told it was 

 a shark. 



After dark the wind failed us ao-ain, and w r e got slowly 



O O K 



along, but finally reached our port, San Ubaldo, about 

 ten o'clock, and found there an officer of the mining 

 company, living in a small thatched hut, stationed there 

 to send on the machinery and other goods that arrived 

 for the mines. A large tiled store had also just been 

 built bv the owner of the estate there, Don Gresjorio 



*j O 



Quadra, under the verandah of which I hung my ham- 

 mock for the night. Mules were waiting at San Ubaldo 

 for us, and early next morning we set off, with our luggage 

 on pack mules. We crossed some rocky low hills, with 

 scanty vegetation, and, after passing the cattle hacienda 

 of San Jose, reached the plains of the same name, about 

 two leagues in width, now dry and dusty, but in the wet 

 season forming a great slough of water and tenacious 

 mud, through which the mules have to wade and plunge. 

 In the midst of these plains there are some rocky 

 knolls, like islands, on which grow spiny cactuses, low 

 leathery-leaved trees, slender, spiny palms, with plum- 



