CHAPTER XIV 
Great range composed of boulder clay—Daraily—Lost on the savannahs 
—Jamaily—A deer-hunter’s family—Totagalpa—Walls covered 
with cement, and whitewashed—Ocotal—The valley of Depilto— 
Hawks and small birds—Depilto—Silver mine—Geology of the 
valley—Glacial drift—The glacial period in central America— 
Evidence that the ice extended to the tropics—Scarcity of gold in 
the valley gravels—Difference of the mollusca on the east and 
west coast of the Isthmus of Darien—The refuge of the tropical 
American animals and plants during the glacial period—The lower- 
ing of the sea-level—The land-shells of the West Indian islands— 
The Malay archipelago—Easter islands—Atlantis—Traditions of 
the deluge. 
BIDDING adieu to our hosts, we mounted our mules and 
descended the ridge on which their hut is built. The range 
was very steep, and fully 1200 feet high, composed entirely 
of boulder clay. This clay was of a brown colour, and full 
of angular and subangular blocks of stone of all sizes up to 
nine feet in diameter. The hill on the slope that wedescended 
was covered with a forest resembling that around Santo 
Domingo, though the trees were not so large; but tree-ferns, 
palms, lianas, and broad-leaved Heliconiz and Melastome 
were again abundant. In these forests, I was told, the 
“ Quesal,” the royal bird of the Aztecs (Trogon resplendens), 
is sometimes found. 
After descending about 1000 feet, we issued from the forest 
and passed over well-grassed savannahs surrounded by high 
ranges, on the eastern slopes of which were forests of pine- 
trees. The ground was entirely composed of boulder clay, 
and not until we had travelled about five miles did we see 
any rock zz situ. This boulder clay had extended all the 
way from San Rafael, and ranges of hills appeared to be 
composed entirely of it. The angular and subangular stones 
that it contained were an irregular mixture of different 
varieties of trap, conglomerate, and schistose rocks. In the 
northern states of America such appearances would be un- 
hesitatingly ascribed to the action of ice, but I was at the 
time unprepared to believe that the glacial period could 
IOI 
