110 NICARAGUA. 



on that country, The Naturalist in Nicaragua, was the 

 manager of the Chontales Gold Mines, and worked them 

 successfully for several years. The Chontales Mines are 

 situated nearly midway between the two oceans, at an alti 

 tude of about 2,000 feet. The gold is confined almost entirely 

 to auriferous quartz lodes. The stones are crushed by 

 machinery, and the gold extracted with quicksilver. It is not 

 very rich in gold as a rule, but occasionally bolsas or patches 

 of ore of great richness are found and pay well. About sixteen 

 different veins were worked in 1874, by different companies. 



The aspect of the country in the Chontales district is 

 mountainous, intersected with valleys well timbered. The 

 climate is hot and damp, as in Granada. The dry season is 

 very short, scarcely four months, from February to May. But 

 on the west side, it is quite different. The dry season lasts 

 from November to May, almost without rain. 



The sky is cloudless, the heat is less, the nights are 

 cool, and the winds occasionally chilling. It is the healthiest 

 season of the year. 



The temperature of Nicaragua in general is equable. The 

 extreme variation recorded at the head of the San Juan River 

 was 23. It rarely rises above 90 Fahr., or falls below 70 

 Fahr. 



The consequence is that the products of Nicaragua are 

 greatly varied in spite of the fact that the greater part of the 

 country is not as yet entirely developed. 



Animal life is very abundant and varied. During his 

 stay in the country, Mr. Belt made a remarkable collection of 

 beetles and butterflies containing many new species, especially 

 in the family of Longicorns. One of the finest insects which 

 he discovered of that family, was Belt s Mallaspis, (Mallaspis 

 beltij, which his friend Mr. Bates dedicated to him. It is 

 about two inches long, varying greatly in colour from golden 

 bronze to golden-green or golden-red. Many other fine and 

 new species were collected by him. 



He also succeeded in procuring the very rare and 

 beautiful Humming-bird, Microchera parvirostris, described 

 by the well-known American Ornithologist, Mr. Lawrence, 

 from one single specimen found in Costa Rica. This beauti 

 ful creature, belonging to the group of Snow Caps of Gould, 

 of which only two species are known, is about three times the 

 size of a drone, dark rosy-purple all over, with the head snow 

 white. It was unknown to European Ornithologists, and is 

 still excessively rare. The fine male specimen which I have 



