of the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. 189 



travelled by land with my muleSj &c. ; so that I had now got every- 

 thing together to commence work. Champerico was provisioned 

 from the interior, water being brought down from a neighbour- 

 ing creek in a canoe. Every morning a native paddled or punted 

 the canoe up the sluggish stream till he considered the water 

 fresh enough to drink, when he half-filled the canoe, and floated it 

 down again. If the fellow was lazy he would take his stock too 

 soon, and a flood of well-merited abuse would be heaped upon 

 him for the rest of the day. It can be as easily understood as ex- 

 plained, that no amount of exertion on his part would make the 

 water very palatable under the circumstances. 



In a few words I will endeavour to explain the nature of the 

 country immediately adjoining the sea. During the continuance 

 of the wet season all the torrents, for such they are, which 

 descend from the Cordillera flow, charged with volcanic sand 

 and disintegrated scoriae. These, on being discharged, the ocean 

 casts back in a continuous line of sandbank. The constant 

 heaping up of this sandbank often has the effect of closing the 

 mouths of the smaller streams during the dry season, when the 

 outflow is not sufficient to reduce the sand-bar. Such small 

 streams then expand inside the sand-beach, forming lagoons 

 and marshes along the whole coast. Sometimes the pressure 

 and the rise of water inside breaks an opening to the sea during 

 the ensuing wet season ; at others, the lagoon remains as such 

 for several seasons. In order to obtain fish, an artificial passage 

 is frequently dug by the owner of the lagoon, when the tide 

 will enter at each rise, bringing many species of fish from the 

 ocean. This passage will remain open for a few months, though 

 sometimes closing at once, thus limiting the quantity of fish to 

 the number then enclosed, as the pent-up waters would no 

 longer exist to assist in forming a fresh outlet. Other lagoons 

 are purposely drained for salt. A kind of sluice is made, and 

 the water run off at low tide. The salt is procured by scraping 

 the mud into small heaps, and allowing it to dry, as much as 

 possible, in the sun. It is then put into an old canoe, or 

 trough, and mixed with water, which is drained off, and boiled 

 in earthen pans. A large quantity of salt is procured in this 

 district, both for curing fish, and for sending to the towns in 



