Mr. 0. Salvin^s Quesal-shooting in Vera Paz. 139 



(thin maize cakes not unlike oat-cake), all of which have to be 

 started the day previous to our own departure, on the backs of 

 five Indians. Our proposed hunting-ground is distant three 

 days' journey from Cohan, two of which lie along a road passable 

 for mules. We therefore reckon on catching up our cargoes on 

 the second day, and then proceeding on together. The road we 

 intend to take is that between Cohan and Cajabon, which we 

 follow as far as San Agustin Lanquin, and leaving our animals 

 there to be sent back to Cohan, make for the ridge of mountains 

 to the northward, and follow them in a westerly direction towards 

 Coban. 



March 6. — The road over the Mico mountain near Yzabal, so 

 graphically described by Stevens, is a tritie to that which we 

 have just passed, — slippery clay, mud and stones combining to 

 make progress difficult, and falling easy. In fact, it was just 

 about as bad a road as one could pass mounted. Cipriano in 

 descending a hill was stretched on his back. Though he com- 

 plains a good deal of himself, his gun, I think, will prove to be 

 the worst sufferer, as an old crack in the stock has opened and 

 we have been obliged to tie it together with string, after the 

 fashion of Gordon Cumming's riile. Mv mule was down on her 

 knees several times, but we both managed to rise togetlier. Filipe 

 fared no better. To-night we are to sleep under a rancho or 

 ' ermita,^ that is to say, a roof upon poles sheltering three crosses. 

 Few of these roadside huts have any walls. Small as our lodging 

 is, it affords shelter to some twenty-five souls; for besides ourselves, 

 and an Indian to carry the hammocks and a change of clothes, 

 some twenty Indians are congregated here for the night, some 

 bound for Coban, some in the opposite direction, but all carrying 

 their cargoes of onions, maize, &c., for sale or exchange. In my 

 hammock I swing clear of everything except the smoke from the 

 wood fire, the least objectionable of evils attendant upon a night 

 spent in an Indian rancho. My blankets I had sewn into bags 

 before leaving Coban, so that I am well provided against cold, 

 which in the mountains is sometimes severe. This plan of sleep- 

 ing in a bag is well adapted for a hammock, where covering below 

 as well as above is necessary, as this desirable end is not so easily 

 or so effectually arrived at by means of the ordinary blanket. 



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