1 66 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



ford; then it passed the last houses on the way where we 

 tried to get a peon to cut the trail. The man refused and 

 probably thought he would force us to turn back. We went 

 on nevertheless and he must have thought better of it, for 

 when we left our horses to begin the climb on foot he had 

 caught up with us and was ready to show us the way. From 

 these houses we rode over the shoulder of a hill with sides 

 sloping sharply down to the river. The road here occupied 

 a ledge cut on the hillside and often wear or slides had nar- 

 rowed it, sometimes to a mere foot-track. It was quite steep, 

 and our horses being fine vigorous animals objected to slow 

 climbing and on every hill broke into a gallop and went 

 tearing up at a pace that took one's breath away until one 

 grew accustomed to their method of hill-climbing. Beyond 

 this hill an unexpectedly new and good gate let us through 

 the last fence and we soon reached the foot of the first really 

 bad bit of road, where we left the horses tied under a beauti- 

 ful "San Miguel" tree. 



Starting on foot at one o'clock we climbed first up a very 

 steep, rocky, clayey road, through rather scattered and open 

 woods. There were many crotons and figs and in sunny 

 spots ageratums and yellow thistle-like composites, in others 

 ferns and caladiums. After a hard pull up this hill of about 

 half a mile we came on a more level boggy place where some 

 cattle were feeding. It was here that we found the gor- 

 geous amaryllid {Bomarea sp.) with long pendent clusters of 

 black-spotted red flowers each one and a half to two inches 

 long. 



After this the forest grew denser, the trees constantly 

 bigger and grander, with the most luxuriant epiphytic 

 drapery and festoons of lianas. There were many fine 

 tree-ferns also, some with the fronds uncurled, others in 

 varying stages of unfolding. The roar of the falls was now 

 constantly in our ears, filling the dark forest with its thunder. 



