156 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. IX. 



clones of Guatemala, and the Mayas of Yucatan, who 

 were probably much more nearly affiliated to the 

 JNahuatls of Mexico than the Lencas. 



"We reached the top of the dividing range, and now 

 left the main road,, talking a path to the left, that is 

 very rocky and narrow. "We began rapidly to descend, 

 and found an entire change of climate on this side of the 

 range. It had been raining for weeks at Libertad, and 

 everywhere the ground was wet and swampy, but two 

 miles on the other side of the range the ground was quite 

 dry, and so it continued to Juigalpa. Dry gravelly hills, 

 covered with low scrubby bushes and trees, succeeded 

 the damp grassy slopes we had been for hours travelling- 

 over. Prickly acacias, nancitos, guayavas, jicaras, were the 

 principal trees, with here and there the tree whose thick 

 coriaceous leaves are used by the natives instead of sand- 

 paper. The beds of the rivers were dry, or at the most 

 contained only stagnant pools of water, until we reached 

 the Juigalpa river, which rises far to the eastward ; the 

 north-east trade wind in crossing the great forest that 

 clothes the Atlantic slope of the continent, gives up most 

 of its moisture ; and this range, rising about three thou- 

 sand feet above the sea, intercepts nearly all that re- 

 mains, so that only occasional showers reach Juigalpa. 



On one of the low gravelly hills that we passed, not 

 far from the path, we saw a troop of the white-faced 

 monkey (Cebus albifrons) on the ground, amongst low 

 scattered trees. Their attitudes, some standing up on 

 their hind legs to get a better look at us, others with 

 their backs arched like cats, were amusing. Though 

 quite ready to run away, they stood all quite still, 

 watching us, and looked as if they had been grouped for 



