2.54 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Cli. XIV. 



strong and durable, and its manufacture was known to 

 the Indians long before the advent of the Spaniards. 

 Bernal Diaz de Castillo, one of the followers of Cortez, 

 often speaks, in his history, of the houses built of stone 

 and lime, and covered with cement. On their march to 

 Mexico, when they arrived at Cempoal, he says, " our 

 advanced guard having gone to the great square, the 

 buildings of which had been recently plastered and 

 whitewashed, in which art these people are very expert, 

 one of our horsemen was so struck with the splendour of 

 their appearance in the sun that he came back in full 

 speed to Cortez to tell him that the walls of the houses 

 were of silver." We also learn from the same historian 

 that the city of Cholula "had at that time above 100 

 lofty white towers, which were the temples of their 

 idols." 



Between Yalaguina and Totagalpa there was much of 

 the conglomerate rock that I have already mentioned. 

 Over this the soil was dry and stony, and filled with 

 small quartz pebbles. The vegetation was scanty, prin- 

 cipally thorny shrubs and trees. Amongst the former 

 the Pinuela, a plant closely allied to the pine- apple, and 

 used to make fences, was the most abundant. In the 

 alluvial flats were many fine patches of maize looking 

 extremely well, for in Segovia the crops had not been in- 

 jured by drought. The low hills were very sandy and 

 dry, and the beds of the brooks waterless, but a little be- 

 yond Totagalpa we found a small running stream, and 

 stopped an hour to refresh our mules and to eat some 

 provisions we had bought at Yalaguina. 



All through Segovia the country is divided into town- 

 ships, embracing an area of from twenty to twenty-five 



