CHAPTER XIY. 



Great range composed of boulder clay Daraily Lost on the savan- 

 nahs Jamaily A deer-hunter's family Totagalpa Walls 

 covered with cement, \ and whitewashed Ocotal The valley 

 of Depilto Hawks and small birds Depilto Silver mine 

 Geology of the valley Glacial drift The glacial period in Cen- 

 tral America Evidence that the ice extended to the tropics 

 Scarcity of gold in the valley gravels Difference of the mol- 

 lusca on the east and west coast of the Isthmus of Darien The 

 refuge of the tropical American animals and plants during the 

 glacial period The lowering of the sea-level The land-shells 

 of the "West Indian islands The Malay Archipelago Easter 

 Island Atlantis Traditions of the Deluge. 



BIDDING adieu to our hosts, we mounted our mules 

 and descended the ridge on which their hut is built. 

 The range was very steep, and fully 1,200 feet high, 

 composed entirely of boulder clay. This clay was of a 

 brown colour, and full of angular and subangular blocks 

 of stone of all sizes up to nine feet in diameter. The 

 hill on the slope that we descended was covered with a 

 forest resembling that around Santo Domingo, though 

 the trees were not so large ; but tree-ferns, palms, lianas, 

 and broad-leaved Heliconian and Melastomaa were again 

 abundant. In these forests, I was tdd, the " Quesal," 

 the royal bird of the Aztecs (Trogon resplendens), is 

 sometimes found. 



After descending about 1,000 feet, we issued from the 

 forest and passed over well-grassed savannahs surrounded 



