CHAPTEE XI. 



Start on journey to Segovia Rocky Mountain road A poor lodging 1 

 The rock of Cuapo The use of large beaks in some birds 

 Comoapa A native doctor Vultures Flight of birds that 

 soar Natives live from generation to generation on the same 

 spot Do not give distinctive names to the rivers Caribs barter 

 guns and iron pots for dogs The hairless dogs of tropical 

 America Difference between artificial and natural selection 

 The cause of sterility between allied species considered The 

 disadvantages of a covering of hair in a domesticated animal 

 in a tropical country. 



IN July of the same year, 1872, I made the longest 

 journey of any I undertook in Nicaragua. It had been 

 for some time difficult to obtain sufficient native labourers 

 for our mines, and as we contemplated extending our 

 operations, it was very important that it should be 

 ascertained whether or not we could depend upon obtain- 

 ing the additional workmen that would be required. 

 Nearly all our native miners came from the high lands 

 of the province of Segovia, near to the boundary of 

 Honduras. The inhabitants of the lower country are 

 mostly vacqueros, used to riding on horseback after 

 cattle, and not to be tempted, even by the much higher 

 wages they can obtain, to engage in the toilsome labour 

 of underground mining. The inhabitants of Segovia, on 

 the contrary, have been miners from time immemorial, 

 and it is work they readily take to. I had often desired 



