294 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



plants, with leaves eight or ten feet long and a foot or more 

 wide. Far above these giants of the lower vegetable kingdom 

 towered the stately mahogany and the slender, tufted palm, 

 the forms of some hidden from view by parasite plants. But 

 this prolific place, where nature has so recklessly showered her 

 bounty, is a vast plague spot, where death stalks silent and 

 ghostly, seeking for victims. 



Though since dwarfed by the great enterprise of De Lesseps, 

 the building of this railroad was a great undertaking when we 

 think of the natural obstacles to be surmounted ; but when we 

 consider that the placing of each tie severed a human life, we 

 are tempted to wish it had never been built. Thousands died 

 in its construction, but at last the road was built, and now the 

 shrieking locomotive, like the Juggernaut of India, rolls over 

 a road-bed of human corpses, drawing in its wake a living 

 freight, which concerns itself little of the sacrifices made for its 

 convenience. 



We frequently stalled in the ascent, although we had but 

 one section of the passengers. At the summit the rear engine 

 was sent back to help up the other half. The descent was 

 quickly made down the valley of the Chagres. On this river 

 we passed some collections of huts, whose people were loung- 

 ing about them. We cannot expect much snap in a com- 

 munity which can pick its dinners off of trees as wanted, and 

 don't have to build a fire to cook them. Crossing the Chagres 

 on an iron bridge we rolled into the modern built city of 

 Aspinwall. Here we met a ship load of people who were to 

 fill the vacancies we left in California. How they plied us 

 with questions, and how patronizingly we answered these 

 " tenderfeet.'' How difi'erently were the two portions situated ; 

 one having seen the elephant, the other just entering the 

 menagerie ! 



The people of Aspinwall, like those of Acapulco and 

 Panama, live on the pickings they get from travelers passing 



