Ch. XL] ?s T AMES OF RIVERS. 203 



but they prefer travelling several miles every day to 

 and from their clearings, rather than desert their old 

 homes. 



Beyond the Aguasco, we had to travel over a swampy 

 plain for about a mile, our animals plunging all the time 

 through about three feet of mud. This plain was covered 

 with thousands of guayava trees, laden with sufficient 

 fruit to make guava jelly for all the world. After floun- 

 dering through the swamp, we reached more savannahs, 

 and then entered a beautiful valley, well grassed, and 

 with herds of fine cattle, horses, and mules grazing on it. 

 The grass was well cropped, and looked like pasture- 

 land at home. The ground was now firmer, and we got 

 more rapidly across it. A flock of wild Muscovy ducks 

 flew heavily across the plain, looking very like the tame 

 variety ; and I do not wonder at sportsmen sometimes 

 being unwilling to fire at them, thinking that they might 

 be domestic ducks. The tame variety is very prolific, 

 and sits better on its eggs than the common duck. I 

 have seen twenty ducklings brought out at a single 

 hatching. They are very good eating, and a large one 

 has nearly as much flesh upon it as an average-sized 

 goose. 



About dusk on these plains, which extended around 

 for several miles, we reached the cattle hacienda of 

 Olama, where was a large tile-roofed house, near a river 

 of the same name. The natives of Nicaragua seldom 

 give distinctive names to their rivers, but call them after 

 the towns or villages on their banks. Thus, at Olama, 

 the river was called the Olama river ; higher up, at 

 Matagalpa, the same stream is called the Matagalpa 

 river"; and at Jinotego the Jinotego river. The Caribs 



