PORTO RICO 



69 



undertaken with great success and 

 profit. Toward the southwest, the land 

 becomes a typical desert, and about 



Interior of a cave above Ciales, Porto Rico. This 

 is a cave with many mouths and a huge vaulted chamber 

 with many stalactites and stalagmites 



Lake Guanica it supports little besides 

 the association of cactus plants. 



In the limestone regions, hundreds of 

 large and small caverns have been exca- 

 vated by underground streams. One of 

 these, near Corozal, is well worthy of 

 description. The valley is a beautiful 

 wide basin, surrounded by peculiar 

 triangular white hills of limestone, and 

 the cave mouth, about forty feet in 

 height, is reached by means of creepers 

 and ledges on the very face of the cliff. 

 Once it is gained, the downward view is a 

 striking and characteristic panorama of 

 hill and field and stream. Cn the sides 

 of the entrance there are hundreds of 

 spider webs, each with the dried remains 

 of its casual collection of prey. Trend- 

 ing inward and upward, the way nar- 

 rows until after four hundred yards or 

 more of walking and scrambling and 

 creeping, one emerges into daylight 

 through a small hole on the other side 

 of the hill. Thousands of bats hide in 

 the holes of the arched roof, or cling to its 

 rough surfaces. On the walls there are 

 peculiar forms of insects and huge 

 Arachnida, with long delicate antennae 

 which serve them in place of their virtu- 

 ally useless eyes. By way of contrast, 

 the cave in the hills above Ciales is one 

 with many mouths, and a huge vaulted 

 chamber with stalactites and stalag- 

 mites above and below. 



On account of the dominant Spanish 

 influence for so many centuries, the 

 population naturally exhibits a pre- 

 ponderance of the characters of that 

 race. Only a small section however, 

 has retained its purity, of which it is 

 justly proud; for the most part the 

 people are mixtures of Spanish, Negro 

 and Indian characters. It is strange 

 that so few are found with unmixed 

 African features, although in certain 

 settlements, they too have preserved 

 many of the customs as well as the 



