PUERTO LIMON 7 



clay which covered it in many places. There were many 

 small streams, mostly of clear water, coming down to the 

 sea in the three miles traversed on foot this day. One of 

 them — of dirty water, however — about a mile and a quarter 

 from Limon occupied a gorge with rather bare sides. The 

 fall of this stream was considerable. Many of these streams 

 formed pools or swampy spots where they met the railroad 

 embankment and around these the crabs were especially 

 abundant. In some places the railroad occupied a ledge cut 

 into the coralline cliffs, in others, where the cliffs were lower 

 or farther inland, it occupied an embankment which had 

 been reenforced, here and there, by dumping odds and ends 

 of railroad iron on the sea side. 



The coral cliffs offer a strong contrast with the country 

 south of Limon along the Banana River line, which is 

 swampy and flat. Still farther north of Limon, beyond the 

 coral cliffs, the country is again swampy, as at Swamp 

 Mouth for example, before the Rio Matina is reached. A 

 number of tall deciduous trees remained throughout these 

 three miles, seeming to indicate that formerly a forest ex- 

 tended to the sea. Most of the vegetation was second 

 growth or had been still further cleared for bananas and 

 yuca. There were many cocoanut palms, fan palms, heli- 

 conias, wild gingers, pipers and breadfruit trees. I did not 

 see many butterflies. A big Morpho fluttered by me twice 

 but I could not catch it. Unfavorable weather conditions 

 no doubt diminished the number of insects seen, as it was 

 cloudy after nine o'clock in the morning and rained at fre- 

 quent intervals, although not hard. The entire Atlantic 

 slope of Costa Rica has a heavy precipitation, Limon having 

 an annual rainfall of 127 inches (3224 mm.); the minimal 

 months are February, September and October. 



