254 THE AMERICAX MUSEUM JOCRXAL 



started the train on its backward journey. Therefore on Monday, as I 

 heard that the expected washout had occurred and would take some 

 two days for repairs, I went again to the rubber plantation La Zacualpa. 

 It was no longer possible to collect anywhere in the jungle. In fact 

 the water was so deep that it was impossible to enter within its borders, 

 except in a canoe. There was plenty of life, however, in the high grass 

 among the rubber trees, and in the period of waiting my collection grew to 

 such an extent that I had to get all kinds of odd bottles to hold the speci- 

 mens. Wednesday we were told that it would take another two days 

 to repair the washout. We remained at Zacualpa. When on Friday, 

 however, we were told that the washout extended over eighty-eight kilo- 

 meters of the railroad more or less, that several bridges were destroyed 

 and that some eight days would l)e required to make the necessary re- 

 pairs, we decided to go to the last station to wiiich the train was running 

 and there to get horses for Pijijiapam. 



It rained nearly all day Friday, and we had to spend the night in a 

 railroad car. Next morning we let the horses swim across the river, 

 while we carried the baggage over a bridge, the approach to which on 

 both sides of the river was dangerous owing to the fact that the track 

 had no support, the ties hanging in the air suspended from the rails. 

 Furthermore, a a'reat amount of brush and loas had been cauti"ht bv the 

 piers in the middle of the bridge so that it bent perceptibly under the 

 pressure. We walked over this bridge one at a time, then resaddled our 

 horses and leaving the railroad started on the " Camina Reale," or 

 "Royal Highway." Fortunately the rain did not begin until about two 

 o'clock or else we should not have been able to cross some of the rivers 

 that we encountered. In the dry season these are mere brooks, but now 

 some of them were about one hundred yards wide and three to four feet 

 deep and so rapid that many a time we hesitated before urging the 

 horses to enter. During the three days of our ride, we crossed twelve 

 such rivers and more than double that nimiber of smaller streams. 



It would be hard to imagine a worse road than this "Royal High- 

 way," the only road between Tapachula and Tonala. In some places 

 it was many yards wide, in others it narrowed to a mere path. It ran 

 through the woods and the fields of ranches which were separated from 

 each other by miles of beautiful jungle. Where the path was narrow, the 

 water from the recent rains was often two feet deep. In other places 

 the road was so mudilv that we had to lift our feet to the horse's neck 



