THE PLANT WORLD 281 



The road was now bordered on either side by dense woods, the most 

 interesting trees of which were the leguminous Intsia {.ox Afzelia) dijnga, 

 which yields the valuable hard wood called IJiL in Guam and Ipil in the 

 Philippines; and Her?iandia peltata, called Nonag or No7iak by the 

 natives. Of the latter we noticed two kinds, one with reddish fruit and 

 a red area at the union of the petiole and the peltate leaf, the other with 

 white or pale green fruit and leaf-marking. The leaves of the young 

 trees were much larger than those of the old ones. The fruit is in the 

 form of a hollow globe open at the top, containing a round ball. This 

 has in some English colonies given it the name of " Jack-in-the-Box." 



On the top of a hill we came to a shed where there was a cross and a 

 stone tablet bearing an inscription to the effect that in 1853 the road along 

 which we were traveling was first made passable for vehicles from Agana 

 to Pago by the Governor, Don Pablo Perez. Don Pablo was the Governor 

 who fought the priests. It is evident from copies of his letters in the 

 archives that he was a hard worker. He did much to improve the island 

 and benefit the natives, but he resented the authority which the priests 

 assumed over the natives. It was only three years after he had finished 

 the road that the town of Pago was wiped out by the smallpox. From 

 the character of the country over which we had been passing, and the 

 condition of the road, we could in a measure realize what a difficult task 

 it was to make it passable, and we thought that Don Pablo had just cause 

 to be proud of the achievement he here recorded. The most difficult part 

 was a stretch of swampy ground where the road was over-arched by giant 

 bamboos. Don Joaquin called my attention to the fact that in such 

 places horses could hardly be induced to go, while cattle stepped in fear- 

 lessly. This shows that the latter are essentially more of a marsh-loving 

 animal than horses. I have seen cattle feeding on the water-plants of 

 Lake Titicaca, with the water nearly up to their backs. Carabaos are so 

 fond of wallowing that when dry or tired they will sometimes lie down 

 with their riders in the midst of a marsh or pond. 



We now began to hear a rumbling sound, which was the noise of the 

 surf beating on the weather shore of the island. The road pas.sed very 

 near a great spring which the natives think has some mysterious connec- 

 tion with Lake Matan-hanom, the source of the Agaiia River on the 

 opposite side of the island, saying that objects thrown into this spring 

 will reappear in the other one. They tell of a sea monster that made its 

 way up that river until the water came to an end. It then began to dig 

 its way through the hill, but when it reached this spot it was stopped by 

 a woman, some say by the Blessed Virgin herself.* This belief of the 

 natives is not very strange, in view of the fact that a number of streams 



* See Don Felipe de la Corte y Ruano Calderon, " Memoria descriptiva t hist6rica de las islas 

 Marianas." Madrid, 1876. 



