ALAJUELA AND THE VOLCANO POAS 349 



family milk. There was a little cabin within a small enclo- 

 sure, part of a large potrero, and into this small enclosure 

 we turned our horses while we picnicked hy a charming brook 

 overhung with anona and orange trees. Nearby was a 

 cluster of Sloanea, large trees with big, glossy, entire, serrate 

 stiff leaves, which rustled and roared in the wind. The fruit 

 is a burr much resembling that of the chestnut in size and 

 shape, but the prickles are much coarser and stiffer and the 

 burrs are not lined with silky down. The species approaches 

 S. macrophylla. Like many other plants with spiny or 

 prickly fruits, it bears the native name of "peine de mico" 

 or monkey's comb. 



The numerous cattle in the large enclosure were of course 

 much excited by visitors and the whole herd followed us 

 about in a manner disconcerting to strangers. But Costa 

 Rican cattle are usually mild and this big yellow bull in 

 particular was so amiable that the preceding summer while 

 Mrs. Clark camped here, her children hung upon his horns 

 and played with him freely, so that he was in a way an old 

 acquaintance. A pleasant feature of these mountain pas- 

 tures was the freedom from ticks, so frequently the pests of 

 grassy country in the tropics. We wandered up to the high- 

 est part of the potrero after a while and lay down in the warm 

 deep grass under some big trees, while the delicious mountain 

 air blew over us, and watched the beautiful panorama of the 

 great central valley, bounded on every side by range after 

 range of mountains except where the blue Gulf of Nicoya 

 gleamed through the opening cut by the Rio Grande de 

 Tarcoles. Only a few miles away the volcanoes of Poas and 

 Barba lay like sleeping giants. All the time we were there, 

 cloud and mist, looking like a huge white pennant stream- 

 ing in the wind, poured through the Desengafio from the 

 moisture-laden plains of Santa Clara, but always disappeared 

 by the time they were over the flat top of Poas. 



