346 



Canadian Forestr]) Journal, September, 1919 



A Land of Laziness. 



The natives of the country, that is the true 

 Honduranian, is of Spanish descent. Those hv- 

 ing in the forest and on the small farms are 

 easily pleased from the point of view of com- 

 fort. Their houses are rude structures built of 

 poles, with clay plastered walls, clay floor and 

 thatched roof. The furniture consists of a raw- 

 hide drawn over a frame for a bed, a .ough 

 table and a couple of blocks of wood for seats. 

 Sanitary conditions are very poor, the cow and 

 pigs and chickens spending as much time in the 

 house as the human portion of the family. Due 

 to the ease of obtaining a living in that warm 

 climate, the people are far from being indus- 

 trious or thrifty, and live under conditions a 

 northerner would not tolerate. 



During the dry season, which lasts from April 

 to October ,the temperature at night is from 75 

 to 85 degrees. During the day from 35 to 95 

 degrees. In winter, November to March, the 

 rainfall is excessive and the cool, damp winds 

 cause the natives to succumb to cold and pneu- 

 monia, because they have no way to warm their 



iood specimen of a mahogany in a dense 

 Honduras forest — 15 feet in diameter, at 

 height of six feet. 



With a Canadian party hunting mahogany in 



Spanish Hondura.s. Note the native 



dugout canoe. 



houses, nor any warm clothes to put on. With 

 the thermometer at 95 degrees in the shade it 

 IS certainly hot, although the heat is not op- 

 pressive and there seems to be little danger of 

 sunstroke. 



On the very sandy soil a few groves of pine 

 were found, the wood of which was hard and 

 full of pitch, closely resembling the southern 

 shortleaf pine. All of the other trees are hard- 

 woods (deciduous). About 30 species of these 

 were common and I have seen places where 15 

 different species of trees could be counted while 

 standing in one place. About the only trees 

 similar to any trees in Canada were a species of 

 oak and also one of locust. The oak, however, 

 as a rule, grows short and scrubby, seldom be- 

 ing found on the high forest. Of the other 

 species the leaves resembled those of the syca- 

 more, beech, locust and walnut, while the woods 

 were similar to that of ash, maple, beech and 

 basswood, some hard and some soft. One 

 species, the Granada, has wood which is very 

 hard. 



