UG Mr.C.W.WyaM on t/te 



great many binls amongst the Caeti thickets on the plain be- 

 tween the lagoon and the foot of the Sierra Nevada ; we never 

 saw, I think, so many species congregated elsewhere. We had 

 hoped to pay Cienaga another visit upon our return journey at 

 the end of March ; but, owing to delays in the upper country, 

 our intention was never carried out. It is a cooler spot than 

 Santa Marta. The thermometer fell to 70° Fahrenheit during 

 the night, while at Santa Marta it stood at 82° night and day. 



The steamer from Santa Marta to Baranquilla, after a pas- 

 sage of about two hours in the open sea, which is made in the 

 early morning, when there is always a dead calm, proceeds 

 through a series of lagoons and canos. Canos are winding 

 passages amongst the mangrove forests, connecting one lagoon 

 with another. They are so narrow that the boughs of the trees 

 often touch the steamer on both sides at the same tin)e ; and, 

 owing to the defective steering and steering-apparatus, frantic 

 charges are constantly made at the bank, the vessel crushing into 

 the mangroves, whose boughs sweep the deck, while the passen- 

 gers rush from one side to the other, holding up pieces of lime- 

 and orange-peel to their noses, as a slight mitigation to the dread- 

 ful odour arising from the black mud which is stirred up. 



These lagoons abounded in AUigators; and the shore was 

 resorted to by various wading birds. In the course of the day, 

 we passed through thousands of acres of swamp, covered with 

 aquatic plants, amongst which we saw the little water-lily-leaf- 

 walking Jacana {Parra hypomelana) , and put up two species of 

 Bittern, Tigrisoma brasiliense and Butoriiles cyanurus (Vieill.). 



There are two steamers each month, which carry the mail 

 from Baranquilla to Bogota, and vice versa ; or, rather, they try 

 to do so, their success depending upon the state of the river 

 and the keeping clear of snags. Steam has been established 

 eighteen years on the Magdalena, during which eighteen steamers 

 have beea lost. The navigation is rendered very difficult from the 

 shallows and constant shifting of sand banks ; the boats are 

 for ever running aground, and are sometimes detained for weeks 

 until there is a rise in the river. 



Soon after leaving Baranquilla, we had a line view of the 

 snowy peak of the Sierra Nevada ; but with the banks of the 



