NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



dians from early times, the best land 

 has been cleared for agricultural pur- 

 poses, and much of the timber has been 

 cut off for fire wood. It is rare, in fact, 

 to find extensive landscapes in which 

 native vegetation still persists. On the 

 rougher slopes are open forests of oak 

 and pine, while many of the higher 

 regions are covered with grass. Rain- 

 fall is scanty and confined to a certain 

 part of the year. Minimum tempera- 

 tures of 30 to 40 are experienced and 

 maxima of 80 to 90. The orange tree 

 can be cultivated up to elevations of 

 7500 ft. The landscape is nearly always 

 characterized by cultivated fields of 

 the Indians, roadways lined with agave 

 plants, and deeply eroded barrancas 

 (occasionally becoming small canyons) 

 in which low scrub forest is found. 

 About Guatemala City, which marks 

 the eastern end of the plateau region, 

 the elevation is only 5000 ft. 



4. To the average naturalist, there 

 is probably no other portion of Guate- 

 mala which possesses so much interest as 

 the Vera Paz. Coban, the center of 

 this region, lies about 100 mi. north of 

 Guatemala City, in a region of low moun- 

 tains and abundant streams. The 

 southern half of Alta Vera Paz and 

 northern third of Baja Vera Paz are 

 uniform in character; farther south, 

 across the Cachil divide, the country 

 becomes dry and unattractive; while 

 to the north lies Peten, part of the huge 

 plain which extends to the coast of 

 Yucatan. 



The mountains of the Vera Paz, few 

 of which reach heights greater than 

 6000 ft., are drained by the Chixoy 

 on the west and the Cahab6n and the 

 Polochic rivers on the east. There is 

 practically no level ground in this 

 region; in the small valleys, most of 

 which lie at elevations between 3000 

 and 5000 ft., are Indian villages, as well 

 as coffee plantations which have been 

 developed in recent years by Europeans. 

 The mountains are covered in many 

 places by luxuriant rain forest, and 

 everywhere there are small brooks, 

 clear as crystal. Rains fall upon this 



region almost daily during the greater 

 part of the year, and there is no well 

 defined dry season, though the inhabi- 

 tants are wont to consider as such the 

 occasional periods of three or four 

 weeks when the rains cease to an extent 

 which permits the roads to become dry. 

 Toward the southern part of this region, 

 some of the slopes are covered with 

 grass and pine. On the north side of 

 the Polochic valley, however, they are 

 mostly clothed with rain forest. Near 

 San Cristobal and Tactic there are 

 groves of Liquidambar in the open 

 places. The tree dahlia (Dahlia maxo- 

 nn) brightens with its starry pink 

 flowers many of the hillsides, while 

 beneath the rain forest are to be found 

 tree ferns, dwarf palms of the genus 

 Chamaedorea, orchids, and Bromeliads 

 in abundance. 



5. The valley of the Motagua River, 

 from Guald,n westward to El Rancho, 

 typifies the arid tropical zone of Guate- 

 mala. To the north are the slopes of 

 the Sierra de las Minas, while to the 

 south are low arid hills as far as the 

 frontiers of Honduras and Salvador. 

 Many of the landscapes are typically 

 those of a desert region, with Opuntias 

 and other Cacti, and thorny shrubs of 

 several families, notably Leguminosae. 

 The soil is sandy, and the rainfall only 

 a few inches per annum. 



6. The lower Motagua valley; the 

 region around Lake Izabal; the Golfo 

 Dulce; and the great plain of Pete"n 

 are to be considered under one head. 

 In all this region the elevation is nowhere 

 above 1000 ft. The rainfall is abundant 

 during a large part of the year, and the 

 vegetation is that of the humid tropical 

 zone (Rain Forest). Around Izabal 

 there are great numbers of Attalea 

 palms and forest trees typical of the 

 Central American sea coast. About 

 Puerto Barrios, the land is very low and 

 swampy. Southwest of this point is a 

 small, low range of mountains known 

 as the Sierra del Mico, at whose north- 

 ern base lies Lake Izabal. Between 

 this and the port of Livingston is the 

 limestone gorge of the Rio Dulce, along 



