JUAN VINAS— ABOVE THE LAGUNA 1 89 



ses was all used in the government fabricas, where it was 

 made into alcohol and alcoholic liquors, the making of which 

 was a government monopoly. 



It was at the Messrs. Cochenour's house, on May 31, 

 that we first met Mr. William Schaus and Mr. John Barnes, 

 then in their three years of collecting Costa Rican Lepidop- 

 tera. During this period they obtained 1081 species of but- 

 terflies and 4000 species of moths, 409 and 3350 more, re- 

 spectively, than were previously known from Costa Rica. 

 Mr. Schaus regarded Costa Rica as the richest area of all 

 Mexico and Central America, a conclusion to which his pa- 

 pers in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, describ- 

 ing some hundreds of new species, bear ample testimony. 

 These Lepidopterists were now gathering the nocturnal moths 

 attracted by the electric lights at this house and mill and at 

 El Sitio, 405 specimens having been the yield of the preced- 

 ing evening. To these two friends we were indebted for many 

 suggestions which guided our own footsteps in Costa Rica. 



The village of Juan Vifias was invisible from the railroad 

 but could be well seen when one had reached the crater's 

 rim. It lay on a small hill in the center of a roughly circular 

 valley. P. visited it only once, on March 22, The streets 

 were lighted by incandescent electric lamps with reflectors, 

 the current being supplied from the Cochenour power plant, 

 but were unpaved and had either no sidewalk at all or only 

 a slightly raised earthen path. There was a number of 

 two-story houses, built chiefly of wood and corrugated gal- 

 vanized iron; the two-spired church was also wooden. There 

 were two schools, telegraph and post office, shops, etc. 



A road led north out of the village toward Turrialba vol- 

 cano, passing first between cafetales and then potreros 

 with cattle; half an hour's walk brought one to a pretty 

 brook which issued from a woods at the left, and after unit- 

 ing with a similar brook at the road was crossed by a bridge 



