Sharp Delineation of the Forest 145 
or sun-dews, possess quite a different apparatus for catching 
insects, and they also live in bogs, which supports the infer- 
ence that plants growing in such situations have some especial 
need to obtain nutriment, which they cannot draw from the 
decaying vegetation on which they live. Possibly they 
obtain the salts of potash in this way. I did not notice any 
provision in the leaves of the Bromeliaceous epiphytes of 
Chontales to ensure the capture of insects, but often saw their 
dead bodies in the water held at the base of the leaves, and 
any that came to drink would be very liable to slip into the 
water from off the nearly perpendicular side of the leaf and 
be drowned. It is not impossible that the small supply of 
mineral salts required for the organisation of these plants. 
that do not draw any nutriment from the earth may be 
obtained from dead insects, but, as I have already stated, I 
believe that the principal object is to lay up a store of water 
to carry them safely through the dry season. Incidentally, 
the further advantage has been gained that insects fall into 
the receptacles of water and are drowned, affording in their 
decomposition nourishment to the plants. 
Our road now lay over the damp grassy hills of the Libertad 
district. It edged away from the Amerrique range on our 
right. To our left, about three miles distant, rose the dark 
sinuous line of the great forest of the Atlantic slope. Only 
a fringe of dark-foliaged trees in the foreground was visible, 
the higher ground behind was shrouded in a sombre pall of 
thick clouds that never lifted, but seemed to cover a gloomy 
and mysterious country beyond. Though I had dived into 
the recesses of these mountains again and again, and knew 
that they were covered with beautiful vegetation and full 
of animal life, yet the sight of that leaden-coloured barrier 
of cloud resting on the forest tops, whilst the savannahs were 
bathed in sunshine, ever raised in my mind vague sensations. 
of the unknown and the unfathomable. Our course was 
nearly parallel to this gloomy forest, but we gradually 
approached it. The line that separates it from the grassy 
savannahs is sinuous and irregular. In some places a dark 
promontory of trees juts out into the savannahs, in others a 
green grassy hill is seen almost surrounded by forest. When 
I first came to the country, I was much puzzled to under- 
stand why the forest should end just where it did. It is. 
