14 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
amongst long grass and rushes that almost touched us on 
either side. Greytown, with its neat white houses, and 
feathery palms, and large-leaved bread-fruit trees, was soon 
shut out from our view, and our boatmen plying their paddles 
with the greatest dexterity and force, made the canoe shoot 
along through the still water. Soon we emerged into a 
wider channel where a stronger stream was running, and then 
we coasted along close to the shore to avoid the strength of 
the current. The banks at first were low and marshy and 
intersected by numerous channels; the principal tree was a 
long, coarse-leaved palm, and there were great beds of wild 
cane and grass, amongst which we occasionally saw curious 
green lizards, with leaf-like expansions (like those on the 
leaf-insects), assimilating them in appearance to the vegeta- 
tion amongst which they sought their prey. As we pro- 
ceeded up the river, the banks gradually became higher and 
drier, and we passed some small plantations of bananas and 
plantains made in clearings in the forest, which now con- 
sisted of a great variety of dicotyledonous trees with many 
tall, graceful palms; the undergrowth being ferns, small 
palms, Melastome, Heliconiz, etc. The houses at the 
plantations were mostly miserable thatched huts with 
scarcely any furniture, the owners passing their time swing- 
ing in dirty hammocks, and occasionally taking down a 
canoe-load of plantains to Greytown for sale. It is one of 
the rarest sights to see any of these squatters at work. Their 
plantain patch and occasionally some fish from the river 
suffice to keep them alive and indolent. | 
At seven o’clock we reached the Colorado branch, which 
carries off the greater part of the waters of the San Juan to 
the sea. This is about twenty miles above Greytown, but 
only eighteen by the Colorado to the sea, and is near the head 
of the delta, as I have already mentioned. ‘The main body 
of water formerly flowed down past Greytown, and kept the 
harbour there open, but a few years ago, during a heavy 
flood, the river greatly enlarged and deepened the entrance to 
the Colorado Channel, and since then year by year the Grey- 
town harbour has been silting up. Now (I am writing in 
1873) there is twelve feet of water on the bar at the Colorado 
in the height of the dry season, whilst at Greytown the outlet 
of the river is sometimes closed altogether. The merchants 
