404 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



not dusty. We descended into the great beautiful tree- 

 filled barranca of the Rio Jesus Maria, from which stream, 

 in previous years, I had received many specimens collected 

 by the late Professor Biolley. The Intercontinental Railway 

 Commission give the elevation of the bridge at the river 

 as 438 feet above sea-level. 



Beyond the barranca we stopped for a few minutes under a 

 large tile-roofed shed by the roadside, erected by the Govern- 

 ment for the shelter of the many travelers on this road. 

 Ox-carts in great numbers passed in both directions, being 

 then the only means of transportation of goods between 

 Esparta and Orotina, just as they were over the whole coun- 

 try for three centuries. At Orotina I was introduced to a 

 Costa Rican artist and his wife, people of sixty or more; 

 they left before we did and we overtook them during the 

 afternoon. They were traveling in an ox-cart, sitting on a 

 mattress placed on the floor, while over the top of the cart 

 was a waterproof covering. Needless to say travel by 

 ox-cart is very slow, as may be judged by our overtaking 

 them, for even we took five hours for the supposedly fifteen 

 miles as the darkness forced the latter part of our journey 

 to be performed at a mule walk. 



After leaving the shed we descended, then ascended 

 another but less deep barranca, of the Rio Paires, and after 

 that I could tell nothing of the road or country for it grew 

 so dark that I could hardly see my mule's head and I was 

 only able to distinguish any one of our party by their white 

 straw hats or the white horse which Prof. Perez Martin 

 rode. As for riders approaching us I saw nothing of them 

 until they were alongside. Carts or droves of pigs traveling 

 in the opposite direction were accompanied by lanterns 

 which, so far as we were concerned, served to blind us to 

 everything else. As there was no rule of the road as to pass- 

 ing and as it was impossible to see the width of the road, 



