Cattle Pasture 10g 
a viscid fluid to the distance of about three inches, which 
stiffens on exposure to the air to the consistency of a spider’s 
web, but stronger. With this it can envelop and capture its 
prey, just as a fowler throws his net over a bird. The order 
of Myriapoda is placed by systematists at the bottom of the 
class of insects; the sucking Myriapods are amongst the 
lowest forms of the order, and it is singular to find one of these 
lowly organised species furnished with an apparatus of such 
utility, and the numberless higher forms without any trace 
of it. Some of the other centipedes have two phosphorescent 
spots in the head, which shine brightly at night, casting a 
greenish light for a little distance in front of them. I do not 
know the use of these lights, but think that they may serve 
to dazzle or allure the insects on which they prey. We 
planted two kinds of grasses, both of which have been intro- 
duced into Nicaragua within the last twenty years. They 
are called Para and Guinea grasses, I believe, after the places 
from which they were first brought. The former is a strong 
succulent grass, rooting at the joints; the latter grows in 
tufts, rising to a height of four to five feet. Both are greatly 
liked by cattle and mules; large bundles were cut every day 
for the latter whilst they were at work on the tramway, and 
they kept in good condition on it without other food. The 
natural, indigenous grass that springs up in clearings in the 
neighbouring forest is a creeping species, and is rather 
abundant about Santo Domingo. It has a bitter taste, and 
cattle do not thrive on it, but rapidly fall away in condition 
if confined to it. They do better when allowed to roam 
about the outskirts of the forest amongst the brushwood, 
as they browse on the leaves of many of the bushes. This 
grass is not found far outside the forest, but is replaced on 
the savannahs by a great variety of tufted grasses, which 
seem gradually to overcome the creeper in the clearings on 
the edge of the forest; but at Santo Domingo the latter was 
predominant, and although I sowed the seeds of other grasses 
amongst it, they did not succeed, on account of the cattle 
picking them out and eating them in preference to the other. 
There were many other paths leading in different directions 
into the forest, and I shall describe one of them, as it differed 
from those already mentioned, leading to the top of a bare 
rock, rising fully 1ooo feet above Santo Domingo. 
