SANTA CLARA 28 1 



railroad, sometimes between the tracks, sometimes along a 

 crooked narrow trail one side of the rails. At San Jacinto 

 we turned into a field containing a sawmill and as there was 

 an extremely heavy cloud hanging over the field and the 

 forest, we waited on the porch of this house until this par- 

 ticular shower should have passed, which it soon did. Then 

 we rode on around great numbers of logs, through deep 

 slippery mud full of stones and stumps, and after fording a 

 small milky stream traveled along its bank until we neared 

 a large banana plantation. Our way led through this, but 

 seeing a well-traveled road running directly into the woods 

 we turned aside to the left and followed it. From its general 

 direction we thought it must finally join the Florida Road, 

 and probably it did at one time, but after we had ridden 

 about a quarter of a mile — over a rough, "rooty," muddy, 

 slippery, loggy path, including a gate to be opened — we came 

 to a great heap of brush which efi'ectually blocked the road. 

 This part of the forest was pretty enough with its huge trees, 

 many epiphytes, and numerous palms, and we saw a Megalo- 

 prepus, but we wanted to visit the real Florida Road, so 

 there was nothing to do but ride back to the fork and go 

 through the bananas. And here was just where our troubles 

 began, for there were many paths through the bananas with 

 branches in every direction and all looked alike. We had 

 been offered a guide, but as P. had been there before he 

 thought he could surely follow the same path. He was not 

 prepared for the way the trails grow up and change their 

 locations and as luck would have it we followed every trail 

 but the right one! Fortunately the day was cloudy with 

 some showers so that it was not so hot as usual in the ba- 

 nanas and we took a few insects, although there was nothing 

 remarkable. About 11.30 we started back to the forest we 

 had first entered, having convinced ourselves that we could 

 not find the main Florida Road, and retraced our way as far 



