CHAPTER XVI. 



Coneordia Jinotega Indian habits retained by the people Indian 

 names of towns Security of travellers in Nicaragua Native 

 flour -mill Uncomfortable lodgings Tierrabona Dust whirl- 

 wind Initial form of a cyclone The origin of cyclones. 



SOME of the ranges were very craggy, and one was so 

 steep and rocky that we had to dismount and lead our 

 mules, and even then one of them fell several times. 

 These craggy ranges were covered with the evergreen 

 oaks, and we saw but few pine trees. JSTow and then we 

 passed over the tracks of the leaf-cutting ants, who were 

 hurrying along as usual, laden with pieces of foliage 

 about the size of a sixpence. There were but few birds, 

 and insects also were scarce, the bleak wet weather 

 doubtless being unsuitable for them. 



We now began to descend on the Matagalpa side of 

 the elevated ranges we had been travelling over, and 

 crossed many small valleys and streams, the latter 

 everywhere cutting through boulder clay, with very few 

 exposures of the bed rock. In the lower lands were 

 many cultivated patches of maize and beans, but the 

 country was very sparsely inhabited. At noon, we 

 reached a small town called Coneordia, where the houses 

 were larger and better built than those in the small 

 towns of Segovia ;' but the church was an ugly barn-like 



