Ride Across the Plains 39 
the cattle hacienda of San José, reached the plains of the 
same name, about two leagues in width, now dry and dusty, 
but in the wet season forming a great slough of water and 
tenacious mud, through which the mules have to wade and 
plunge. 
In the midst of these plains there are some rocky knolls, 
like islands, on which grow spiny cactuses, low leathery- 
leaved trees, slender, spiny palms, with plum-like fruit, 
prickly acacias, and thorny bromelias. This spiny character 
of vegetation seems to be characteristic of dry rocky places 
and tracts of country liable to great drought. Probably it 
is as a protection from herbivorous animals, to prevent them 
browsing upon the twigs and small branches where herbaceous 
vegetation is dried up. Small armadillos abound near these 
rocky knolls, and are said to feed on ants and other insects. 
We had a long chase after one, which we observed some 
distance from the rock, over the cracked and dried-up plain: 
though it could not run very fast, it doubled quickly, and 
the rough cracked ground made odds in its favour; but it 
was ultimately secured. Pigeons, brown coloured, of various 
sizes, from that of a thrush to that of a common dove, were 
numerous and very tame. One of the smallest species alights 
and seeks about in the streets of small towns for seeds, like 
a sparrow, and more boldly than that bird, for it is not 
molested by the children—more perhaps from indolence 
than from any lack of the element of cruelty in their dis- 
positions. After crossing the plains we rode over undulating 
hills, here called savannahs, with patches of forest on the 
rising ground, and small plains on which grows the ternate- 
leaved jicara (pronounced hickory), a tree about as large as 
an apple-tree, with fruit of the size, shape, and appearance 
of a large green orange, but growing on the trunk and 
branches, not amongst the leaves. The outside of the fruit 
is a hard thin shell, packed full of seeds in a kind of dry pulp, 
on which are fed fowls, and even horses and cattle in the 
dry season; the latter are said sometimes to choke them- 
selves with the fruit, whilst trying to eat it. Of the bruised 
seeds is also made a cooling drink, much used in Nicaragua. 
The jicara trees grow apart at equal distances, as if planted 
by man. The hard thin shell of the fruit, carved in various 
patterns on the outside, is made into cups and drinking- 
