4 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



sent out in 1909. On May 9, 1910, from 10 A. M. to 8 P. M. 

 bananas were loaded on the "Prinz Joachim." A banana 

 train of ordinary box freight cars was run on the covered 

 pier and within a few yards of the ship's side. Negroes 

 standing within each car handed out the bunches of green 

 fruit singly to other negroes without, each of whom laid 

 his bunch on his left shoulder, which was padded with a 

 burlap bag to prevent bruising the bananas, and carried it 

 to the end of a loading machine. Here another negro took 

 the bunch and placed it carefully on an endless belt by 

 which it was carried into the ship. The belt — the chief part 

 of the loading machine — was about thirty feet long and was 

 operated in an almost horizontal plane by a small portable 

 engine at its side. The entire machine was covered by a 

 canvas awning and a larger awning was stretched over the 

 ship end of the machine and the hatch into which the fruit 

 was passed from the belt by hand. The edges of the hatch 

 were padded with burlap-covered cushions, so that in all 

 much care was taken to avoid bruising the fruit or exposing 

 it to undue heat or moisture. Once we timed the number of 

 bunches passed on to the loading machine in one minute, 

 finding it to be twenty-four, but at other times the number 

 was greater. 



Railroad tracks left Limon from both its northern and its 

 southern ends. Of those to the south, some follow the coast 

 line to the Banana River, while others soon turn westward 

 to the interior.^ These railroad beds are the only roads 

 leading out of Limon and of course are not available for 

 wheeled vehicles but only for equestrians or pedestrians. 

 Walking southward on the tracks leading toward Banana 

 River and keeping as near the sea as the wet and muddy 

 ground would permit, P. had his first near view of a pelican 

 at large, when one alighted in the shallow water of the beach 



1 See the map in Chapter XVI. 



