42 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



large log or tree-trunk, pointed at one end so It could be more 

 easily hauled. There were twenty-five or thirty teams In 

 this one file and we followed it to the back of the church. 

 Here a previous procession had deposited almost as many 

 loads of sand, stone, gravel, bricks and other building ma- 

 terials. The gates were open giving us a glimpse into the 

 garden where we could see some monks in their brown robes 

 with hoods and rope girdles. They looked pleased and with 

 reason, for all this labor and material was donated and work 

 on the church progressed rapidly after the Turno. Before 

 we left Costa Rica the church and other buildings had been 

 finished, forming one of the finest ecclesiastical groups in 

 Cartago. Alas! We not only saw It finished but utterly 

 destroyed a short time after its completion. 



At the extreme east of the town stood the Church of 

 Nuestra Senora de los Angeles, one of the most remarkable 

 of the Cartago churches from the large collection of silver 

 votive off"erIngs and the sacred spring behind the church. 

 The shrine enclosing the spring was a curious eight-sided 

 pavilion; there was no roof but the sides were filled in with 

 iron grillwork and a sign invited alms for the completion of 

 the edifice. The door was locked but one could look through 

 the ironwork of any side. Steps and an inclined path of 

 ■cement led down to the spring In the center, and this path 

 was bordered on each side by wonderful constructions of ce- 

 ment apparently representing the waves of the sea and a 

 lighthouse. Each wave was coated with sea-shells, and 

 there was besides a tiny full-length figure of the Virgin under 

 a glass case, a large Sacred Heart under another glass case, 

 while a little promontory between two windings of the path 

 was occupied by a tiny garden of real flowers carefully en- 

 closed by chains and wire netting. The inside walls below 

 the grillwork were adorned with paintings of landscapes — 

 hills, a train crossing a high bridge, people walking on a 



