308 National Oeograjphic Magazine. 



Jhorizontal pieces of a smaller diameter were securely fastened on 

 with long tough strips of bark, and thus a square or oblong frame 

 was fashioned. The horizontal pieces were placed at a distance 

 of about three feet from the ground, on which a flooring was 

 eventually laid, and at the top of the frame where the slope of 

 the roof began. On the top pieces other poles were laid and 

 fastened across and lengthwise, and on these the men stood while 

 making the skeleton of the roof. The latter was made very steep 

 for better protection against the rain. After the ridge pole 

 was put in position other smaller poles were fastened on parallel 

 and perpendicular to it so that the whole roof was divided up 

 into squai'es, and it was finally completed by weaving in thick 

 bunches of palm and other leaves in such a way as to make it 

 thoroughly water-proof. For our purpose no protection on the 

 sides of the structures other than the projecting eaves was con- 

 sidered necessary. A floor of poles laid very close together was 

 put in one house, the one used for sleeping purposes, and in the 

 other a table for eating, writing, draughting, etc., was made. 

 Thus in two or three days the place was made thoroughly habita- 

 ble, and men were detailed to see that the grounds, etc., were always 

 kept thoroughly clean and in a good sanitary condition, a very 

 necessary precaution in a tropical country. The forest afforded 

 game, the river an abundance of fish ; bananas, oranges, lemons 

 and pineapples were easily procured from the natives, who also 

 furnished material for a poultry yard, and thus while located at 

 camp Capite, situated as it was on a picturesque spot overlooking 

 two swiftly flowing rivers, with good drinking water, a commis- 

 sary department well stocked, a French cook who would have 

 done himself credit anywhere, I could not but think that hereto- 

 fore pictures of life in Darien had been too somberly di*awn, and 

 that where so much suffering and sickness had prevailed among 

 the early explorers it was because they had gone there not prop- 

 erly outfitted, and because carried away with ambitious enthu- 

 siasm their adventurous spirit had caused them often to undertake 

 that which their calmer judgment would not have dictated ; and 

 that to these causes as much as to the unhealth^^ condition of the 

 locality was due their many hardships. Several days were spent 

 here getting time and latitude observations and in mapping out 

 plans for the work. It was decided that the mouths of the Yape, 

 Capite and Pucro and other points along these rivers, such as 

 ,mouths of tributary streams, etc., should be astronomically lo- 



