374 ^ YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



As I went down into the valley of the Tizate which was 

 here no more than a small brook, I found the surroundings 

 scarcely recognizable, for the fields had been cleared of brush, 

 weeds, stubble, etc., and these burned. Only along the 

 stream was there a strip of green. I went upstream a little 

 farther than we had been in December and down as far, spend- 

 ing four hours along a stretch of less than a mile; most of the 

 time I was at a charming shady spot where I ate lunch and 

 where there was water oozing out of the bank and fit to drink. 

 Good water was a serious question for clothing was washed 

 in almost every stream, contaminating it below, and only 

 where water could be seen coming out of the earth, and with 

 no human habitation above, did I care to trust it. When 

 tramping along the now dusty roads, with a blazing sun 

 above, fondly did I remember these "ojos de agua" — eyes 

 of water — as springs were called here. 



Wishing to visit the Tizate at some lower point on its 

 course, I walked on April ii to the next station east of Ate- 

 nas, Cebadilla, about two kilometers distant from which a 

 road led southward and crossed the Tizate. At the crossing 

 I asked permission to enter the potrero and go upstream, 

 which was at once granted. The Tizate there and then (it 

 being the dry season when all water courses were contracted 

 in volume) was in places ten to fifteen feet wide, in others 

 narrowed by the rocks between which it flowed to three or 

 four feet, but where the channel was so reduced there was 

 often another, sometimes under stone. It was a smaller 

 stream than the Siquiares north of Turriicares, not so deeply 

 shaded, but otherwise similar, forming pools at successive 

 steps below each other, each pool emptying by a little cas- 

 cade. Boulders were strewn more or less Indiscriminately 

 along the bed. Uruca trees formed much of the shade. 



The return to Cebadilla station was painful on account 

 of heat and thirst, for the water piped to Atenas was not 



