DIARY AXD NOTES 343 



are hanging down from protruding rocks, while the veil- 

 ing fog coats the foliage. What magnificent hiding places 

 some of those spots would make for Indians or— other 

 people. After passing Cape Mariate, our distance from 

 the coast became more and more noticeable. We sighted 

 Cape Matapalo the next morning and, as the coast from 

 there to Cape Lloreno was hardly visible to the naked eye, 

 the distance must have exceeded fifteen miles. Toward 

 evening of the twelfth, we reached Cape Blanco and had 

 covered only about two hundred and twenty-five miles in 

 about fifty-six hours, as the wind had been somewhat 

 against us part of the time. On Saturday, the fourteenth, 

 we observed quite a change of scenery as the conical giant 

 mountains along the coast of San Salvador and Guate- 

 mala, many of which are volcanoes of more or less dan- 

 gerous propensities, formed quite a contrast to the coast- 

 scenes I described before. Some of these mountains are 

 actually thirteen to fourteen thousand feet above the sea- 

 level. The captain informed me that we were uncom- 

 monly fortunate in our observation, as these giants are 

 more than a hundred miles away from our present course, 

 and only visible in consequence of a certain tropical, 

 meteorological phenomenon, which is a very rare occur- 

 rence in these regions. Two of those volcanoes seemed to 

 emit smoke but that may have been a mistake of ours. 



Sunday, the fifteenth, finds us in the Gulf of Tehuante- 

 pec and as the air is remarkably pure this morning we 

 can distinguish the bluish mountains of Mexico, though 

 they are yet fully forty to fifty miles distant. 



A fresh Northwest breeze cooled the air, and we were 

 refreshed in body and spirit. About noon we sighted the 

 company's Steamer "Constitution," which left San Fran- 

 cisco nine days ago while we are nearly five days from 

 Panama. 



Monday, at day-break, we pass along the coast of 

 Oajaca at a distance of about three miles. This part of 

 the coast shows another variety of nature's work; the 

 mountains are terrace-shaped, with wide romantic val- 

 leys, some of which resemble our plains, reaching from 



