NATURAL HISTORY OF COSTA RICA — RIDGWAY. 315 



tion is broken by some stream or where clearings have been made; 

 all is a matted and tangled mass of vegetation through which it is 

 necessary to cut one's way. On the Pacific slope, where demolition 

 of the forest has been sadly overdone, the long dry season greatly 

 facilitates the burning of the trees and undergrowth, and in con- 

 sequence, as has already been stated, there is no real forest between 

 San Jose and Punta Arenas. On the Atlantic slope, however, the 

 labor of clearing is far greater and therefore, except on the coastal 

 plain, where extensive areas have been cleared for banana planta- 

 tions, most of the openings in the virgin forest are the partially 

 cleared potreros (woods pastures) of the several large cattle ha- 

 ciendas. Very little of beauty has been left in the more densely in- 

 habited portions of the Pacific slope, so nearly complete has been 

 deforestation there ; but in the potreros of the Atlantic slope, where 

 only the smaller trees and undergrowth have been removed, and the 

 ground sown to tropical pasture grasses, as at Bonilla, Guayabo, 

 Coliblanco, and El Paraiso, one can walk freely beneath the large 

 trees that have been spared and realize more than elsewhere the 

 charm of tropical vegetation. These are, indeed, the real "beauty 

 spots," and it was the writer's good fortune to remain at each of the 

 places named for from several days to several weeks. To adequately 

 describe all that was seen there would be impossible; but mention 

 of the more striking features of these wonderful spots may be worth 

 the reader's time. 



Our first visit to the " cloud zone " was to the summit of the volcano 

 of Poas (8,700 feet) — the only constantly active volcano of Costa 

 Rica — which was reached by rail from San Jose to Alajuela, thence 

 to the base of the cinder-cone by horseback. The most noteworthy 

 incident of the railway trip was the astonishing sight of children 

 coasting — actually coasting in the Tropics. It was the middle of 

 the dry season, and the long drought had dried the grass on the 

 steep hillsides to such a degree that walking upgrade with shod feet 

 was well-nigh impossible. The barefooted children, however, were 

 making the most of these slippery hillsides, and, with improvised 

 sleds, of different patterns, were gleefully sliding downhill, " belly- 

 buster " and otherwise, and having every whit as much fun as our 

 youngsters do in coasting down a snow-covered slope. 



Leaving Alajuela at dusk, we arrived during the night at San 

 Pedro de Poas, where a halt was made for supper. Resuming our 

 journey, a brilliant moon illumined the way, the moonlight gradually 

 merging into daylight as the sun rose above the cordillera. The 

 lecheria (dairy farm) at the upper edge of the deforested zone was 

 reached in time for breakfast, after which our horses plunged, single 

 file, for the trail was wide enough only at intervals for two animals 



