

206 
NATURE 

GREVYIOWN AND ADFACENT COUNTRY 
er own is important as the only port possessed 
by Nicaragua on its Atlantic coast, and is situated 
in 11° N. lat. and 84° W. long. The place itself is 
insignificant enough, as a glance at the accompanying 
view of the interior of the harbour will show ; at the same 
time it is of strategical importance in many ways, and its 
history is not uninteresting. The climate is humid, and 
along the low coast-lands a tropical heat prevails. The 
heat is never oppressive while the trade winds blow, but 
during calms it is sultry and overpowering. The pre- 
vailing type of disease appears to be a low form of inter- 
mittent fever, which is not to be wondered at, considering 
that Greytown is built upon a swamp. June, July, and 
August are considered the unhealthy months, and January, 
February, and March the healthiest, the thermometer 
seldom exceeds 82° Fahr., or falls below 71° Fahr. in the 
shade. 

| 
SEASONS* ¥ 
RAINY DRY 
June January 
July February 
5 August March 
+ October April 
November May 
December + August 
The rain descends in a per- + October 
Sometimes not a drop of rain 
falls, but generally it is showery, 
even in the so-called dry season 
at Greytown. 
fect deluge, accompanied , by 
thunder and lightning. 
In the interior, where the forest vegetation has been 
cleared away in the neighbourhood of the islands and 
lakes, the seasons are more marked, and the dry season 
is really dry, not a drop falling. At times Greytown is 
| visited by terrible gales or hurricanes styled “ Northers,” 
at such times the trade wind is gradually killed, anda 




























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































GREYTOWN HARBOUR 
calm precedes the coming storm, the barometer falls 
rapidly, andthe clouds bank up in the horizon, After these 
warnings the norther commences without further prelude, 
and in an incredibly short time the sea is churned up into 
great and violent waves, whilst the surf on the bar is | 
terrific. A norther will sometimes last for three whole 
days. 
The whole civilised population of the Nicaraguan and 
neighbouring republics is collected on the Pacific side of 
Central America ; the Caribbean coasts being almost en- 
tirely uninhabited, with the exception of afew independent 
tribes of Indians along the banks of the large rivers like 
the Indian and Rama. The principal tribes are the Valiente, 
Rama Cookwra, Woolwa Tonga, and Poya tribes, all 
interesting from an ethnological point of view, especially 
1s they are fast disappearing. There is generally a small 
camp of some of these tribes on the sandy spit (Punta 
d’Arenas) at the entrance to Greytown harbour, who catch 
and sell turtle, &c. Accounts of these Mosquito tribes 
will be found in the Journal of the Royal Geographical 
Society, 1862, p. 242, &c., by Mr. Bell, and in the last 
volume of Memoirs of the Anthropological Society, by 
Mr. Collinson. This region, ze. the valley and lowlands 
of the San Juan and the lakes of Nicaragua and Managua, 
is more particularly interesting to naturalists and geolo- 
gists, as forming the border land between two of the great 
primary distributional provinces for the terrestrial verte- 
brata in the present world recognised by Prof. Huxley, 
viz., the boundary line betwixt Axstro-Columbia and 
Arctogea. For it was in this direction apparently, that, 
during the Miocene epoch, these two great land divisions 
were separated by that great equinoctial ocean whose 
currents rolled from eastward beyond and over the present 
sites of the Sahara deserts and the plains of Hindostan. 
As the line of the American Cordilleras was upheaved, 
the continents more nearly approached each other, an 
archipelago of detached volcanic summits probably first 
indicating the future isthmus ; whilst the bounds of the 
ocean were narrowed, and previous to the actual junction 
but a narrow channel or strait was left. It is supposed 
that the last indication of this strait is yet observable in 
the line of the San Juan and the waters drained by it. 
This theory has received substantial support from the ob- 
* See Capt. Pim’s “‘ Gate of the Pacific,” p. 71. 


