THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Then, if you are lucky, you board a 

 funny little train of narrow guage cars, 

 pulled by an old-fashioned engine that 

 protests with violent shrieks, each 

 time the steam is sent into her ancient 

 cylinders. As you rattle along through 

 the sun-baked land where lizards 

 thrive and bleaching cattle skeletons 

 tell of many a vulturine feast, it sud- 

 denly dawns upon you that this is 

 South America, and you look from the 

 car window with new interest as tiny 



of the tropic's most gorgeous trees 

 and plants. Hundreds of beautiful 

 birds of every imaginable color, and 

 an occasional monkey are seen among 

 their branches, while on the sandy 

 banks of the river proper, one sees nu- 

 merous crocodiles and once in a while 

 a pair of Capabarras, a species of huge 

 South American rodent. Many little 

 native towns are also passed whose 

 mud and thatch huts remind one of 

 pictures of darkest Africa. 



WOOD CARVINGS OF COLOMBIAN PEASANTS. 

 Note the water bottle, chicken, baskets and other details which are life size in the illustration. 



mud huts with thatched roofs and their 

 quota of half clothed humanity flash 

 past. 



Two or three hours later, if you are 

 fortunate, the train pulls into Barran- 

 quilla, a clean city of some twenty 

 thousand inhabitants. Here is where 

 the Magdalena river boats dock, huge 

 eld wood burning stern wheelers. The 

 day after arriving in Barranquilla I 

 was on a river steamer named the 

 "Margarita" with a captain who had 

 seen service at one time on an Ameri- 

 can coasting steamer! 



The river was very low, it being 

 January and the height of the hot 

 <md dry season, and altogether eleven 

 clays were required in making the four 

 hundred odd mile trip to La Dorada. 

 1 was rather glad that the steamer was 

 so slow, as this river trip alone, is 

 worth going to South America for. 



Great tropical forests come down to 

 the very banks on either side, forests 



Twice a day our steamer stopped 

 for a fresh supply of fuel, which is 

 purchased from the native river peo- 

 ple who own regular wood stations. 

 During these stops the entire expedi- 

 tion would go off into the forest to 

 hunt and in this way a beautiful col- 

 lection of birds was secured. 



The food on these river steamers is 

 very bad, some of it being decayed or 

 even filled with maggots when served. 

 Cattle are carried on board and are 

 slaughtered, sometimes only an hour 

 before it is cooked- for the passengers I 

 For water one must drink the Magda- 

 lena, and it is far from uncommon to 

 see the carcass of a dead cow or 

 "inula," as a donkey is called, floating 

 down with the current. Several dis- 

 gusting vultures sitting upon the car- 

 rion and occasionally picking at it adds 

 greatly to one's comfort when drink- 

 ing the water! 



At La Dorada there is another nar- 



