92 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



man then lowered his gun and walked back disgustedly to 

 his house without accepting our offer. He did not seem 

 drunk; perhaps his conduct can be explained as due to igno- 

 rance. He was an exception to all the Costa Ricans I met 

 in his treatment of us. Professor Tristan told me that in 

 Costa Rica everyone is free to go Into a pasture or coffee field, 

 but not into a man's house or the enclosure surrounding it. 



Tres Rios or La Union, a town of 1500 inhabitants 

 (1910), lying six miles west of Cartago, is in the midst of 

 plantations producing some of, if not the, best Costa Rican 

 coffee. The numerous streams in its neighborhood flow 

 ultimately into the Pacific. On the fourth of December P. 

 after exploring along the southern and eastern edges of Tres 

 Rios found a pretty road which finally led high up on Car- 

 pintera. It crossed several streams along which were num- 

 bers of a velvety dark blue moth {Ardonea morio) with a 

 wing-spread of one and three-eighths inches. Not having 

 planned to climb Carpintera to-day I had no breakfast, but 

 the weather was fine and clear and the trail fairly good so 

 that I concluded to go up as far as the trail led and be hungry, 

 unless I found a chance of buying tortillas at some peon's 

 cabin. Human residences, people and even cattle were few, 

 however, and no food was to be had. The trail, winding, 

 steep and in some places slippery, eventually terminated 

 near the top of a spur lying next east of the highest peak. 

 This spur had been cleared of trees and was in part planted 

 in maize, but was mostly potrero which had become charral 

 (overgrown with bushes) to such an extent that the bushes 

 were as high or higher than one's head; they grew close to- 

 gether and were often bound together by vines so that go- 

 ing through them was slow work and it was hardly possible 

 to gain any spot from which one could have a view In all 

 directions. From the north of this spur, a little below its 

 top, I had a grand view to the north bounded by the moun- 



