238 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
of satisfaction that he is building a new house. Such a 
picture is typical of Nicaragua. 
Don Filiberto told us that there was a limestone quarry 
not far from his house; and as I wished to learn whether it 
occurred in beds or veins, I proposed next morning to walk 
over to it, but he said we should need the mules to cross the 
river. Thinking, from his description, that it was only 
about a mile distant, I started on mule-back with him; but 
after riding fully a league, discovered that he actually did 
not know himself where it was, but was seeking for another 
man to show him. We at last arrived at the house of this 
man. He was absent. A boy showed us a small piece of 
the limestone. It was concretionary, and I learnt from him 
that it occurred in veins. I was vexed about the time we 
had lost, and the extra work we had given the poor mules; 
my only consolation was that as we rode back I picked a fine 
new longicorn beetle off the leaves of an overhanging tree. 
When we came to settle up with our host he proposed to 
charge us twenty-five cents, just one shilling, or fourpence 
each. They had given us a good dinner and put themselves 
to much inconvenience to provide me with a bedstead, and 
this was their modest charge. Nor did they make it with 
any expectation that we would give more. It is the universal 
custom amongst the Mestizo peasantry to entertain travellers; 
to give them the best they have and to charge for the bare 
value of the provisions, and nothing for the lodging. We 
could so depend upon the hospitality of the lower classes 
that every day we travelled on without any settled place to 
pass the night, convinced that we should be received with 
welcome at any hut that we might arrive at when our mules 
got tired or night came on. The only place in the whole 
journey where we had been received with hesitation was at 
the Indian house a day’s journey beyond Olama. There the 
people were pure Indians, and other circumstances made me 
conclude that the Indians were not so hospitable as the 
Mestizos. 
We finally started about nine o’clock and rode over dry 
savannahs, where, although there was little grass, I was told 
that cattle did well browsing on the small brushwood with 
which the hills were covered. All the forenoon we travelled 
over stony ranges and dry plains and savannahs. At noon 
