140 Mr. 0. Salvin^s Quesal-shooting in Ve)'a Paz. 



March 7. — Soon after starting I shot a fine specimen of 

 Accipiter erythrocnemis, and shortly afterwards one out of a pair 

 of Ictinia plumbea. This last species seems to be particularly 

 partial to patches of pine trees, which grow at intervals all 

 through the Alta Vera Paz. The road was no improvement 

 upon that of yesterday, and though we had not far to go, it was 

 late in the afternoon when we reached Lanquin. Finding that 

 Fray Domingo Lopez, the Padre Cura of Cajabon, was in the 

 village, we went to the convent and there put up. 



March 8. — As it is necessary to take a ' practico ' or guide 

 with us to the mountains, I had purposed spending a day in 

 Lanquin to find one, and also two Indians, as two of those hired 

 at Coban have to return with the mules and saddles. A guide is 

 absolutely necessary, as my companions have never explored these 

 districts; and a knowledge of those parts most frequented by the 

 Quesals, as well as of the springs of water, is indispensable to the 

 success of the expedition. Moreover we might lose ourselves 

 in these forests for days, and the consequences would be serious. 

 Most places have their ' lion,' and Lanquin is not an exception to 

 the rule ; the ' lion ' in this case being a cave, out of which the 

 river of Lanquin emerges. This stream helps to swell the river 

 of Cajabon, and finally flows into the Polochic. The interior of 

 the cave is said to be beautifully festooned with stalactites. It 

 becoming known that we have resolved on an inspection of it, a 

 number of Indians, boys and men, follow us from the village, and 

 these, with two I have hired to carry pine for torches, swell our 

 party to some twenty individuals. Each takes his bundle of 

 chips, and all having fired their torches, we go in. These caves 

 are always curious and interesting to see ; but the half-naked 

 Indians, each with his lighted torch, scrambling about the rocks 

 .in all directions and shouting to the echoes, enhance the 

 strangeness of the scene. After winding in and out and climb- 

 ing up and down among slippery stones, now stooping to pass 

 a narrow opening, now gazing upwards into vacant blackness 

 or downwards into similar obscurity, we reach the point where 

 the river flows at the bottom of the cavern, not in an unbroken 

 stream, but among large masses of rock, over which we scram- 

 ble. Having satisfied curiosity, and the torches beginning to 



