436 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



troublesome owing to the many sharp spines covering trunk 

 and frond-stems. It was often necessary to make quite a de- 

 tour to pass a place where these ferns grew. Black flies (Sim- 

 ulium) were also troublesome but an oil of citronella-cocoa 

 butter mixture which we had brought from the United States 

 did good service when smeared on face, hands and especially 

 ears. 



During the night and the following morning there was 

 much wind and frequent showers, the first rain we had had 

 since leaving San Jose. We were consequently kept indoors 

 for several hours, but when the sun came out Espinoso, 

 Padilla and we two set off on horseback for the fumaroles, 

 or solfataras, of Cerro Guachipelin. We followed the road 

 taken the preceding morning and reached a llano across 

 which we rode for half an hour. The sun shone brightly 

 yet we had constant rain owing to the furious northeast wind 

 which carried the rain horizontally for long distances; having 

 this wind directly "head on" made our journey much slower 

 than it would otherwise have been. At times the wind blew 

 so strongly that I wondered to see the horse stand up against 

 it. I kept my hat on but Professor Tristan removed his 

 and said afterwards that the rain beating on his head felt like 

 small stones. Finally we reached a low woods where there 

 was some shelter and rode through it to the Rio Colorado, 

 which had to be forded. Although the river was much nar- 

 rower and shallower here, it was very swift with plenty of 

 slippery stones in river bed and banks, and again Padilla was 

 obliged to pull each of our horses across the ford. After 

 another stretch of woods we came out on a rolling grassy 

 tract with a few scattered trees and arrived at the fumaroles 

 a little after noon. Locally the fumaroles are known as "las 

 pailas" or "las hornillas" but there were said to be other 

 nearby hornillas to the north of the Rio Blanco, which 

 latter we never crossed. 



