CHAPTER VIII 
Description of San Antonio valley—Great variety of animal life— 
Pitcher-flowered Marcgravias—Flowers fertilised by humming- 
birds—By insects—Provision in some flowers to prevent insects, 
not adapted for carrying the pollen, from obtaining access to 
the nectaries—Stories about wasps—Humming-birds bathing— 
Singular myriapods—Ascent of Pefia Blanca—Tapirs and jaguars 
—Summit of Pefia Blan¢a. 
On the northern side of the Santo Domingo valley, opposite 
to my house, a branch valley came down from the north, 
which we called the San Antonio Valley. It intersected all 
the lodes we were working, and I constructed a tramway up 
it as far as the most northern mine, called San Benito, by 
which we brought down the ore to the stamps and the fire- 
wood for the steam-engine, and in a short time we had cleared 
all the timber from the lower part of the valley; and a dense 
scrub or second growth sprang up, through which numerous 
paths were made by the woodcutters. I was almost daily 
up this valley, visiting the mines, or in the evening after the 
workmen had left, and on Saturday afternoons, when they 
discontinued work at two o’clock. On Sundays, too, it was 
our favourite walk, for the tramway was dry to walk on; 
there were tunnels, mines, and sheds at various parts to get 
into if one of the sudden heavy showers of rain came on; 
and there were always flowers or insects or birds to claim 
one’s attention. I planned the whole of the tramway; the 
upper half I surveyed and levelled myself; and my almost 
daily walks up it familiarised me with every bush and fallen 
log by its side, and with every turn of the clear cool brook 
that came prattling down over the stones, soon at the 
machinery to lose its early purity, and be soiled in the cease- 
less search for gold. 
The sides of the valley rose steeply, and a fair view was 
obtained from the tramway in the centre over the shrubs and 
small trees on each side, so that the walk was not so hemmed 
in with foliage, as is usual in the forest roads. Insects were 
plentiful by this path. In some parts brown tiger beetles 
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