SANTA CLARA 27 1 



a well-equipped bathroom and other small rooms above. In 

 the main house the interior of all the rooms — walls and ceil- 

 ings — was finished in dark stained wood. All the sleeping 

 rooms were on the second floor and at night all windows 

 were left open — a welcome change from conditions enforced 

 by sleeping on the street level at Cartago. 



From the upper veranda at the front of the house there 

 was, in the clearness of each early morning, a magnificent 

 view of the Cordillera Central lying just south. From left 

 to right one saw Turrialba, Irazii, Barba and Poas. The 

 view of them from Guapiles is more imposing than from 

 Cartago and San Jose because Guapiles is but 1000 feet 

 above the sea while Cartago is 4750 feet and San Jose 3800 

 feet in elevation, so that the mountains gain immensely in 

 height when seen from here. Turrialba, which is more or 

 less hidden by Irazu when looked at from Cartago or San 

 Jose, is especially fine. The northern slopes of all these 

 mountains were well wooded to the summits, which was in 

 great contrast to the appearance of Irazu from Cartago — 

 the forests being largely replaced by cattle pastures. 



Mr. Schaus and Mr. Barnes offered to show me some of 

 the best collecting grounds which they had found on their 

 previous visits to Guapiles, an ofi"er which of course I was 

 very glad to accept. On the morning of the second we 

 crossed to the south of the railroad, went along a row of 

 wooden houses one of which bore a large sign "Blue Nose 

 Villa" for no visible cause, passed a sawmill, crossed two 

 potreros diagonally and so arrived at a bit of forest into 

 which a trail wide enough for a rider entered and soon forked 

 right and left. The second of the above-mentioned fields 

 still contained a number of trees and shrubs, remains of the 

 forest that once covered all this country solidly, as indeed 

 it still did in large part. One of the tall trees, with all the 

 characteristics of the tree I noticed at La Junta, had like- 



