490 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



successful. May we meet again under happier surround- 

 ings! 



Late in the day, work had begun on the construction of 

 the track around the fallen tower of Carmen church. The 

 up-train from Limon arrived as far as this tower and some 

 of the guests from Weldon's went aboard and stayed there 

 all night, the train eventually making its way to San Jose 

 when the siding was completed. As it grew dark we threw 

 ourselves, wrapped in blankets, across the covered beds in 

 the street and slept, though brokenly, through the night; 

 there was hardly any rain. 



About 10.30 on the morning of May 6 the train for Limon 

 arrived and, finally settled in the chair car, we took our fare- 

 well view of Cartago, just a year to the day of the week since 

 we came to make our headquarters at Weldon's. How differ- 

 ent the scene! As we moved eastward from the station we 

 passed through a part of the town containing less substantial 

 houses and, looking down some of the streets, one could not 

 see a single house standing on either side for their whole 

 length. Instead were heaps of adobe bricks, roof beams, 

 bamboo frames, tiles and sometimes galvanized iron roofs 

 mixed together indiscriminately, while streets and patios 

 had makeshift shelters of most varied construction around 

 which stood groups of survivors watching the passing train. 

 It was a most sorrowful and distressing sight, especially 

 to those who like ourselves had lived here for months and 

 come to have an aifection for the town and its beautiful 

 surroundings. 



The village of Paraiso was not near enough to the tracks 

 to enable us to see how extensive the damage was there. 

 But the great single tower of the church, which had been a 

 landmark visible for miles around, was gone and we could 

 see that the east end of the church had also collapsed. East 

 of Paraiso we saw little evidence of the work of the earth- 



