TURRIALBA AND PERALTA 263 



carried tracks, telegraph poles and wires and everything 

 into the river, they were seven days with no communication 

 with the outside world, while day and night the air was 

 filled with the continuous roar of the rocks and boulders 

 swept downstream by the tremendous force of the river and 

 constantly striking and loosening others as they were hurled 

 along. A conductor supplied another picture of the Man- 

 ager of the United Fruit Company obliged to stand on a 

 chair in the chair car on his train because the car was flooded. 



But I saw no dragonflies by the Reventazon in the fast 

 falling darkness. 



Following a suggestion of Mr. Hess, on August 9 I went 

 along the track southward, as far as "mile post 55" from 

 Limon, stopping on the way at a small stream crossed by a 

 short railroad bridge where I took a couple of additional 

 species of dragonflies for Peralta. A short distance beyond 

 post 55 was a siding turning off" to the east; just north of it 

 was a corrugated iron cabin and a pretty grass-covered 

 path also leading east to the Reventazon. This soon 

 brought me to the river which at this point had no pro- 

 jecting rocks although above and below there were foaming 

 rapids and boulders. A wire cable was stretched across the 

 river here from platforms of logs lodged in tree-trunks about 

 eight feet above the ground on either bank. On the cable, 

 at each bank, was a tiny car consisting of a couple of grooved 

 wheels from which hung two short pieces of rope each sus- 

 pending a wooden crosspiece. There was no pulling rope 

 across the river and apparently the only way of crossing was 

 to sit upon one crosspiece, put the legs upon the other and 

 then laboriously pull the car along by hand-over-hand work 

 on the wire cable — probably cutting one's hands to pieces 

 in the attempt. Mr. Hess had said that I could cross the 

 river by this car if I wished — but I did not wish! At the 

 opposite end of the cable a man was apparently about to 



