444 ^ YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



— "periqultos," frequently enlivened the journey; all three 

 are abundant In the country through which we traveled. 

 Along the roadsides from Los Boquerones (or Palmira) to 

 Filadelfia were many iguanas, lying in the road or high up 

 on the branches of large trees, the former scuttling into 

 hiding as we came near. 



Professor Tristan had telegraphed from Liberia to Fila- 

 delfia and there the Jefe Politico, don Pablo Villar, brother 

 of the member of the Commission, lodged us in the Casa 

 Municipal; we had meals in the nearby house of Seiiora 

 Ramirez, who had a granddaughter in the Colegio de Seiiori- 

 tas at San Jose. Don Pablo showed a mark on the inner 

 wall of a room in the Casa Municipal about two feet above 

 the floor, as the level to which the waters of the Rio Tempis- 

 que reached in October, 1908. Yet at this time the river 

 banks nearest this house were thirty feet above the water 

 level, giving some idea of the extent to which this country 

 is flooded. This day everything in Filadelfia was dust, 

 driven to and fro by an intermittent wind. 



After some hours' rest we went to the Tempisque, only 

 a few minutes' walk, where Don Pablo secured a dugout 

 and paddled us across stream to a beach of mingled sand 

 and small stones, on which we spent an hour collecting. 

 Near the water's edge were many "frog-hoppers" {Gelasto- 

 coris flavusF), one-quarter inch long and three-sixteenths 

 wide, Hemipterous insects of the family Galgulidse. They 

 were colored so nearly like the small stones as to be discov- 

 ered with difficulty. 



On January 19, we left Filadelfia at 7.10 on horseback for 

 Santa Cruz. Don Pablo accompanied us as far as the village 

 of Belen and the remainder of the way we had a guide sup- 

 plied by Sefior Chamorro. At Belen we crossed a tributary 

 of the Rio Bolson and followed its bank for some distance. 

 Here the guide stopped to speak to some one, telling us to go 



