Difficult Travelling 151 
was now worse than when I had passed over it a month 
before. After reaching the savannahs, we proceeded more 
rapidly. We followed the Juigalpa road until we got two 
leagues beyond Libertad, when we turned more to the north, 
taking a path that led over mountain ranges. This road 
was very rocky and steep; we were continually ascending or 
descending, and as it rained all the afternoon, the footing for 
our beasts was very bad. I was riding on a horse, and he not 
being so sure-footed or so cautious as a mule, often stumbled 
on the steep and slippery slopes. In some places the path 
led along the top of the narrow ridge of a long hog-backed 
hill; in others, by a series of zigzags, we surmounted or came 
down the precipitous slopes. I nearly came to grief at one 
Lf 
SS 
THE ROAD AND ROCKY LEDGE 
place. We had climbed up one of the steep hills, and at the 
top a rocky shelf or cap had to be leaped, at right angles to 
the narrow path that slanted up the face of the hill. I put 
my horse to it, but he slipped on the smooth rock and fell. 
If he had gone back over the narrow path, he must have 
rolled down the abrupt slope; but he made another spring, 
fell again, but this time with his fore-feet over the rock, and 
on the third attempt scrambled over and landed me safely 
on the top, but, I confess, much shaken in my seat. My 
straw-hat came off in the struggle, and was rolling merrily 
down the hill, when it was caught in a low bush, much to 
Rito’s satisfaction, who was anticipating a long tramp after 
it. We had a fine view from the top of this range over a 
deep valley, bounded with precipitous cliffs and dark patches 
of forest. Over our heads floated drifting rain-clouds from 
the north-east that sometimes concealed the mountain tops, 
sometimes lifted and showed their craggy summits. 
