NEW YORK TO PANAMA. 406 



savannah, and farther back the elevation gradually increased to heights of several hundred 

 feet. And their prodm -tioiin ! towering cocoas, with tufts of leaves and clusters of nuts; 

 palms, with gracHul leal-stalks and brilliant masses of pendent flowers ; palmettos emblem 

 of our chivalric State ; broad-leaved plantains and bananas, with massive bunches of fruit in 

 every stage from green to gold ; wide-spreading caobas, with intensely dark green foliage ; 

 tall canes and bamboos, and multitudes of other unknown varieties some matted over by 

 vines Mt'.diHriviit hues others solitary monarch* of little knolls, all telling of a vertical 

 sun and copious rains of the almost cotemporaneous birth and decay of vegetable productions. 

 From the mutilated extremities of many vines, evidently cut away to facilitate navigation, 

 long crimson fibres stole earthward in search of foothold again the mass of the plant sus- 

 tained meanwhile through the tendrils about the tree to which it clung. No colors could be 

 more exquisite than the shades reflected in the morning sunlight /rom stout waving masses of 

 these fibres contrasted with a verdant back-ground. What a scene 1 Rank tropical vegetation 

 found its way into the bubbling stream, and the forests a tangled and matted mass, which man 

 had never penetrated charmed the sight with their gigantic, graceful, or gorgeous productions. 

 Both of us remarked the absence of flowers : a few varieties of the convolvulus tribe, and one 

 or two of a scarlet color, at some distance from the river bank, were all that we saw ; nor could 

 an infinite variety of parasitic plants made up for the deficiency. Parrots and parroquets in 

 flocks, numberless swallows, an occasional heron, a few iguanas, lizards everywhere, and 

 some not very attractive butterflies, were all the specimens of animated nature within our 

 changing panorama. Smaller species of the feathered tribe often darted across the stream 

 or among the trees, but we were not sufficiently versed in ornithology to recognise them at a 

 passing glance. 



August 28. At 9 A. M. stopped at a settlement on the north bank of the river called Dos 

 Hermanos. It is perhaps fifteen miles from Chagres, and is ordinarily a place for breathing 

 the crew, and obtaining something to eat. There are three reed-houses here whose proprietors 

 have an abundant supply of fowls, rice, and tropical fruits in their season, and know how to brew 

 very tolerable coffee. Whilst our men reireshed themselves in the running-stream fearless of 

 alligators, we were contented with spring-water and a big calabash as a substitute for a basin. 

 All hands having done ample justice to the provisions brought from the Empire City, as well 

 as to the old lady's coffee, ten o'clock found us under way again, our people paddling against a 

 current running from three to four miles the hour. 



As we ascended, the country gradually became more elevated, sometimes rising into alluvial 

 knolls of considerable height, some of them perhaps of very recent origin ; in fact, there are 

 many places on the immediate banks of the river where a stratum of earth from ten to fifteen 

 feet in thickness overlies another of still undecayed leaves. In one or two places there are 

 distinct traces of where the river-bed had previously been ; but we saw neither boulders nor out- 

 cropping rock strata during this day. 



Winding along with nearly uniform width above Gatun, the Chagres rarely proceeds in a 

 straight line for more than half a mile ; and as the current gradually increases from the mouth 

 towards its source, every advantage is taken of eddies by the boatmen, and with every new 

 reach you cross the stream. Though so narrow, it must be very deep in the middle; for poles 

 ten feet long would barely touch bottom within a few feet of the shore, and most of the time one 

 side or the other of our canoe was brushing the bamboos or vines on its banks. You are rarely 

 in mid-stream, or beyond the shade of overhanging trees; indeed, branches stretch far towards 

 the centre, forming a perfect fairy scene. 



The morning passed without notable incident. Two or three parties with their treasures 

 from California were met descending ; to whom, if we could judge by their hurrahs and cheers 

 long after they had turned the reach below, the tidings that the Empire City awaited them 

 below was not less welcome than was the first lump of glittering metal to their sight. Not far 

 from two o'clock we had got well among the highlands, when the gathering of cumuli and 



