Sarrorp: NOTES OF A NATURALIST AFLOAT—I 127 
The town of Chagres presented a novel appearance 
with its small square houses of bamboo. The eaves of the 
steep roofs thatched with palm leaves projected about 
three feet beyond the sides of the houses, thus sheltering 
as thin walls from the rain. Around the thresholds 
armed pigs, goats, dogs, ard naked children, the latter 
ak their bellies distended from eating great quantities 
of bananas. We saw a number of handsome cattle, re- 
sembling Jerseys or Alderneys, but with longer horns. 
_ As we skirted the banks of the Chagres, we pictured to 
ourselves the flotilla of boats in which the English bueca- 
neers with Morgan at their head ascended the river, on 
their way to destroy the city of Panama, in 1671. 
_ At intervals we passed little huts marked with the 
‘names of the various “brigades” or surveying parties. 
At many places we were besieged with girls and women 
offering the passengers coconut candy, coconuts, oranges 
bananas, hard-boiled eggs, and bread, for sale at prices 
higher than they could be bought for in New York eo 
City. We were now approaching Culebra, the highest 
point of the route of the canal, where an enormous 
cut, almost three hundred feet deep, w would have to be 
made. Beyond this point, on the Pacific side of the __ 
ridge, the aspect of the represen ‘change, and there 
x the most 
e. 
