412 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



A short distance east of the northern part of Chira, a large 

 bare rock projects from the water, possibly a couple of hun- 

 dred feet high; it is known as Yuca and is a conspicuous 

 object for a long distance owing to its yellow color. Several 

 schools of porpoises were seen near the boat. 



The Gulf gradually narrowed to form the mouth of the 

 Rio Tempisque, which we now ascended. This, one of the 

 large rivers of the country, was known to the Chorotega 

 Indians (whose descendants have mixed with Spaniards and 

 others) as the Zapandi, often spelled on old maps Capandi. 

 Some distance above its mouth it forks, the east fork being 

 known as the Rio de las Piedras, navigable by these small 

 steamboats as far as the town of Bebedero. The west fork 

 retains the name of Tempisque and this was our course. 

 The steamboat left Puntarenas near the end of each week for 

 Puerto Ballena on the Tempisque and near the beginning of 

 each week for Bebedero. Mail for Liberia went by both of 

 these routes so that Liberia received two mails a week. 



Soon after entering the mouth of the river we stopped at 

 a place on the right or west bank whose name I could not 

 learn, to land a couple of passengers but more especially 

 to take on wood for fuel for the engine. Only a single thatch- 

 roofed hut was visible here. To the west appeared two 

 bare gray hills, one of which was not inaptly compared to a 

 church on account of its resemblance to a high-pitched roof. 

 At this fuel station the banks were of clay, honeycombed 

 with crabs' burrows not unlike those formed by the fiddlers 

 in the inlets on the New Jersey coast. As we waited we could 

 see the honeycombed soil broken into masses of the size of a 

 man's head by the action of the small waves and dropped 

 to the bottom. Here and elsewhere the water of the Tem- 

 pisque was muddy and it is said to be always so on account 

 of the clayey banks. 



As we went up the river, the channel lying often close to 



