104 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. VII. 



their intermittent lights as they pass amongst the low 

 bushes or herbage, making another twinkling firmament 

 on earth. On other evenings, sitting inside with lighted 

 candles and wide- opened doors, great bats flap inside, 

 make a round of the apartment, and pass out again, or 

 iris- winged moths, attracted by the light, flit about the 

 ceiling, or long-horned beetles flop down on the table ; 

 and in this way I made nay first acquaintance with many 

 entomological rarities.* 



The heaviest rains fall in July and August, and at 

 these times the brooks are greatly swollen; the one 

 in front of my house sometimes carried away the little 

 wooden bridge that crossed it, and for an hour or two be- 

 came impassable, but subsided again almost as soon as the 

 heavy rain ceased falling, for the watershed above does 

 not extend far. Every year our operations were impeded 

 by runs in the mines, or by small landslips stopping up 

 our tramways and levels, or floods carrying away our 

 dam or breaking our watercourses ; but after August we 

 considered our troubles on this score at an end for the 

 season. Occasionally the rains lasted three or four days 

 without intermission, but generally they would come on 

 in the afternoon, and there would be a downpour, such as 

 is only seen in the tropics, for an hour or two, then some 

 clear weather, until another great bank of clouds rolled 

 up from the north-east and sent down another deluge. 

 In September, October, and November there are breaks 

 of fine weather, sometimes lasting for a fortnight ; but De- 



* In moths, numerous fine Sphingidse and Bombycidce ; and in 

 beetles, amongst many others, the rare Xestia nitida (Bates) and 

 Hexoplon alUpenne (Bates) were first described from these evening 

 captures. 



