146 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Cli. VIII. 



natives, I believe that in Central America he never 

 attacks man unless first interfered with, but when 

 wounded is very savage and dangerous. Velasquez 

 told me that his father had mortally wounded one, 

 which, however, sprang after him, and had got hold of 

 him by the leg, when it fortunately fell down dead. 



The path up Pena Blanca hill gets steeper and steeper, 

 until about fifty yards from the rock it is too precipitous 

 and rugged to ride with safety, so that the rest of the 

 ascent must be made on foot. Tying my mule to a 

 sapling, I scrambled up the path, and soon emerging 

 from the dark forest, stood under the grey face of 

 the rock towering up above me. The rock has two 

 peaks, of which the highest is accessible, footholds 

 having been cut into the face of it, and the most diffi- 

 cult part being surmounted by a rude ladder made by 

 cutting notches in a pole. Above it the rock is shelving, 

 and the top is easily reached. I found a strong north- 

 east wind blowing, which made it rather uncomfortable 

 on the top, but the view was very fine and varied. To 

 the south-east and east the eye roams over range 

 beyond range all covered with dark forest, that partly 

 hides the inequalities of the ground, the trees in the 

 hollows growing higher than those on the hills. On 

 this side the rock is a sheer precipice, going down per- 

 pendicularly for more than three hundred feet ; the 

 face of the cliff all weathered white. The tops of the 

 trees are far below, and as one looks down upon them, 

 hearing the various cries and whistles of the birds 

 come up, and marking the vultures wheeling round in 

 aerial circles over the trees far below one's feet, one 

 realises that at last the forest, with its world of foliage, 



