Ac7'oss Nicaragim with Transit and Machete. 323 



that a tunnel may be cut through it as through a hedge. 

 If the clearing be large, the tough, wiry grass is no higher than a 

 man's head, and a path has to be mowed through it, while the 

 sun beats down into the fui-nace-like enclosure till the blade of 

 the machete becomes almost too hot to touch. 



But worse than anything thus far mentioned are the Silico or 

 black palm swamps. Some of these in the larger valleys and 

 near the coast are miles in extent. 



Occupied exclusively by the low, thick Silico palms, these 

 «wamps are in the wet season absolutely impassable except for 

 monkeys and alligators, and even at the end of the dry season 

 the engineer enters upon one with sinking heart as well as feet, 

 and emerges from it tired and used up in every portion of his 

 anatomy. It is with the utmost difficulty that he finds a prac- 

 ticable place to locate his instrument, generally utilizing the 

 little hummocks formed by the trunks of the clusters of palms, 

 and in moving from point to point he is compelled to wade from 

 knee to shoulder deep in the black mud and water. 



General reconnaissances from high trees in elevated localities, 

 simple enough in theory, are by no means easy in a country so 

 miserly with its secrets as this, nor are their results reliable 

 without a great expenditure of time, labor, and patience. 



On level, undulating and moderately broken ground, the tops 

 of the trees, though they may be one hundred and fifty feet from 

 the ground, are level as the top of a hedge. Even an isolated 

 hill if it be rounded in shape presents hardly better facilities, the 

 trees at the base and on the sides, in their effort to reach the sun- 

 light grow taller than those on the summit, and there is no one 

 tree that commands all the others. 



If however an isolated hill of several hundred feet in height 

 be found, its steep sides culminating in a sharp peak, one day's 

 work by three or four good axmen, in cutting neighboring trees, 

 will prepare the way for a study of the general relief and topog- 

 raphy of the adjacent country. If after these preliminaries have 

 been completed the engineer imagines that he has only to climb 

 the tree and sketch what he sees, to obtain reliable knowledge of 

 the country, he is doomed to serious surprises in the future. If 

 he makes the ascent during the middle of the day, he will, after 

 he has cooled off and rested from his exhausting efforts, see 

 spread out before him a shimmering landscape in which the uni- 

 form green carpet and the vertical sun combined, have obliterated 



