44 BRITISH HONDURAS. 



in working order, with numerous logs in course of being trimmed, 

 or " manufactured," preparatory to being tumbled into the river. 

 After a slight halt for breakfast, and for drying our clothes, we 

 pushed on, keeping still on the right bank of the river. Soon 

 after, we passed through some magnificent cohune forests, 

 interspersed near the river's bank with the thick matted growth 

 of the " prickly bambu." TJiis plant is one of the most graceful 

 and handsome of the family ; its leaves being as fine as 

 asparagus, and its long sinuous stems drooping in a most 

 graceful manner. Seen at a distance, a vast expanse of this 

 bambu gives one the idea of a downy, feathery mass of green, 

 most attractive and refreshing. Here, however, its beauty and 

 elegance ends. On nearer acquaintance it develops into one of 

 the most formidable obstacles which a traveller can meet. 

 Every joint of its long slender stem is furnished with a formid- 

 able coterie of spines, sometimes an inch or an inch and a half long. 



Where this bambu has firmly established itself as along the 

 river banks it is quite impossible to pass through it; even wild 

 animals avoid it, or if hotly pressed, and they take shelter there, 

 they are literally torn to pieces by its ruthless spines. 



Our path often led over creeks running into the Old River, 

 and, where particularly dangerous, we had to dismount and 

 lead our horses across ; at other times we had to allow them 

 to take their own lead and get over ourselves the best way we 

 could. 



The vegetation along the banks of the Old Eiver was of 

 surpassing beauty and luxuriance. As the chief objects of the 

 woodcutter are the mahogany, cedar, and rosewood, everything 

 else is left alone. Magnificent trees of the Ceiba, or silkcotton-tree, 

 were passed, with buttresses like those of huge castles. The first 

 branches were generally some 80 or 100 feet from the ground. 

 Above, their wide-spreading massive branches were literally 



