/ 

Fuly 13, 1871] 
NATURE 
207 

servations of Mr. Osbert Salvin, the well-known ornitho- 
logist, who, from long studying the peculiarities of the 
Central American bird-fauna, has come to the conclusion 
that an oceanic separation is plainly indicated as having 
formerly existed between Costa Rica and the country 
north of the Nicaraguan lakes. This upheaval has by no 
means ceased, and the lakes of Managua and Nicaragua, 
up to which the Spanish galleons proceeded, wéd@ the San 
Juan, are now 156 and 128 feet respectively above the mean 
level of the twooceans. So that now with difficulty stern- 
wheel light-draught steamers, drawing but eighteen inches 
of water, make their way between the rapids, their cargo 
having to be shifted across these impediments. A rise of 
six feet in the waters of the lakes enables bongos to pass 
the rapids in the wet season. 
Every year apparently adds to the difficulties of the 
navigation, which Mr. Collinson attributes to the continual 
rise of the Pacific coast. Indeed, it is not improbable, 
if a careful series of observations were established, that 
after alapse of years the rate of rise might be ascertained, 
which, if compared with seismological observations in the 
same district, would prove of the utmost value and interest. 
Ithas been before noticed that Greytown isthe only settle- 
ment of any size on the Caribbean coast, owing to its posi- 
tion at the mouth of the San Juan river, which is the only 
one which offers facilities for transit across the isthmus ; 
and consequently a portion of the Californian traffic has 
for some yesrs passed in this channel, an enterprising 
American company having monopolised the “ transit- 
route.” Owing, however, to the rapid silting-up of the 
embouchure of the San Juan at Greytown, this town 
would infallibly have lost all its importance, had it not 
been that the rapid development of marine telegraphy has 
given rise to a great demand for india-rubber, a valuable 
kind of which is collected from trees which are 
numerous in the dense forests of the Central American 
isthmus, especially on the Atlantic coast. 
Greytown is the principal port for the export of india- 
rubber on the coast. It is collected by parties of Indians, 
Caribs, or half-caste Creoles, seldom by Europeans, 
to whom the dealers, who are also storekeepers, advance 
the necessary outfit of food, clothing, and apparatus for 
collecting rubber, on condition of receiving the whole of 
the rubber collected at a certain rate. The rubber hunters 
are termed Uleros (U/e being the Creole term for rubber). 
A party of Uleros, after a final debauch at Greytown, 
having expended all their remaining cash, generally make 
a start in a canoe for one of the rivers or streams which 
abound on the coast, and having fixed on a convenient 
spot for a camp, commence operations. The experienced 
rubber hunter marks out all the trees in the neighbour- 
hood. The rubber tree is the Casti//oa elastica, which 
grows to a great size, being on an average about four feet 
in diameter, and from twenty to thirty feet to the first 
spring of the branches. From all the trees in the almost 
impenetrable jungle hang numerous trailing parasites, 
lianes, &c., from these, and especially the tough vines, 
are made rude ladders, which are suspended close to the 
trunks of the trees selected, which are now slashed by 
machetes in diagonal cuts from right to left, so as to meet 
in the middle in central channels, which lead into iron 
gutters driven in below, and these again into the wooden 
pails. The pails are soon full of the white milk, and are 
emptied into larger tin pans. The milk is next pressed 
through a sieve, and subsequently coagulated by a 
judicious application of the juice of a Bejuca (an Afo- 
cyna ?) vine. The coagulated mass is then pressed by 
hand, and finally rolled out on a board with a wooden 
roller, The rubber has now assumed the form of a large 
pancake, nearly two feet in diameter and about a quarter 
of an inch thick, on account of which they are termed 
tortillas by the Uleros; these cakes are hung over the 
side poles and framework which supports the razcho, 
which is erected. in the woods, and allowed to dry for 




about a fortnight, when they are ready to be packed for 
delivery to the dealer. 
In the meantime others of the party goin pursuit of 
game, such as tapirs or dazfes, or mountain cows, as they 
are termed, of which there are several species; or they 
harpoon the manatee,* which they dexterously follow in 
their canoes, as it cannot remain under water long. The 
point of the harpoon used by the Indians is moveable, 
and, attached to a line and floating reel, it becomes de- 
tached from the shaft when the siren is struck. The 
wild boar or javali (domestic pig run wild?) and the 
qwaree, or peccary, which are shot 1n June and July, and 
the deer, which are shot in December, afford good pork 
and venison. The waters of all the numerous rivers and 
lakes are characterised by an astounding number of dis- 
tinct ichthyological fauna. The Indians are good fisher- 
men, and will shoot fish in the water by bow and arrow, 
or cut them down with a machete; the best fish are 
perhaps the gwafote, mojarra, and savallo. By way of 
feathered game the curassows and guans (Crax alector, 
C. fasciolata and several Penelopes) of different species 
are of good size and- flavour, whilst iguanas and land 
turtle eggs serve to vary the bill of fare of the Ulero 
gourmet. 
The picnic life of the Ulero is not all couleur de rose. 
At night the jaguars and pumas (/e/zs onca, F. melas and 
F. concolor) will prowl in the neighbourhood of the rancho. 
These beasts are sometimes brought to bay with dogs by 
the Carib mahogany cutters in the fork of a low tree, and 
then speared; the spear in this instance is always pro- 
vided with a stout cross bar, to prevent the transfixed 
animal from reaching his assailant. 
Besides this the alligators abound in the water, which 
renders bathing slightly precarious ; but as a general rule 
these brutes are cowardly enough when not hungry. On 
one occasion one of the party (with whom the author was 
in these woods) having shot a dante, which sank to the 
bottom of the River Rama, an Indian dived after it to 
attach a rope tothe carcass: while the alligators, attracted 
by the smell of blood, surrounded the canoe in a circle of 
some score yards in diameter, but none of them ventured 
an attack on the bold diver. Both Caribs and Indians have 
a profound contempt for the alligator in these rivers. Oa 
shore, again, the snakes are numerous, such as the 
tuboba, vipora de sangre, a long black snake, Coryphodon 
constrictor, the lovely coral, and barber pole snakes, and, 
worst of all, the small tamagusa or “tommy goff.” The 
Caribs assert the valuable propereies of a vine—a species 
of Aristolochia—which they declare will allay the effects 
of a snake bite. 
The greatest drawbacks, however, to the enjoyment of 
Ulero life in Mosquitia and Costa Rica are the swarms of 
garrapatas or ticks (/vedes), which persecute remorse- 
lessly the hunter or woodsman. The chigoe or jigger is 
also another annoyance. By-the-bye, it is said, | do not 
know on what grounds, that this last-mentioned pest 1s 
only to be found where domestic swine are kept. I only 
know that I have suffered from one in the woods many 
miles from any domesticated swine. Do they appear 
therefore where there are wild hog or peccary? There is 
also a digusting bot fly and swarms of mosquitoes near 
the water. 
The Formicide are likewise numerous and formidable ; 
a gigantic black ant which especially pervaded the ebce 
(Dipterix oleifera) trees is justly dreaded, and we always 
avoided slinging our hammocks from these trees if pos- 
* The genus Manatus appears to be the most ubiquitous of the sub order 
Sirenia, ard various species are to be found not only on the rivers. inland 
lakes, and coasts of Tropical America, but along th= entire opposite coast of 
Africa, where the habitat of the AZaxatus senegalensis extends round the 
Cape, and as far norh on the Mozambique cvast as the river Zambesi ; 
besides which its presence is recorded in the Lake Shirwa by D. Kirk. A 
species, AZ. Vogeliz, also occurs in the upper Niger, and, «ccording to Barth, 
in Lake Tsad, whilst Heuglin notices one species .n the Tana Sea ii Abysin- 
nia. Soitis not improbable that the Manatus may occasionally meet its 
East Indian congener the Hadicore Dugons. 

