74 The West American Scientist. 
tad. The coach runs from the harbor to the capital, which is 
situated further in the mountains, on a_ high volcanic 
plateau. 
San Salvador is now a fine and well built city, though it has 
none of its former splendor. In 1854 it was a magnificent city, 
with many churches,palaces and splendid buildings, but on the 
night of. April 16th, of that year, it was completely destroyed by 
one of those terrific earthquakes which are so frequent in Cen- 
tral America. The city was rebuilt and was again partly destroyed 
in 1873. It remains, however, always the seat of government 
and the capital of the republic. | 
The inhabitants of San Salvador pride themselves on being the 
most polished and the most cultured in Central America. They 
read a great deal and study much, and are, without question, 
better posted on all social and political questions than are their 
neighbors of Honduras or Guatemala. The ladies study also 
a little, and willingly discuss all known, or unknown 
questions with anybody who happens to come in their way. 
With strangers they are free, bold and very anxious to know 
what the ladies in other countries do, how they dress and 
how they spend their time. The Salvadorian ladies flirt a little 
more than their sisters in other Spanish-American republics, and 
are very anxious to marry early. In fact, it is regarded as a dis- 
grace if the lady does not marry. The Salvadorian ladies com- 
pare favorably with their sisters in Guatemala or Nicaragua. 
They are affectionate; generous. but quick tempered; brilliant, 
but superficial; vain and vacillating; courageous in the highest 
degree, but capricious. They like the song and dance, but not 
so much as the ladies of Leon. 
South of La Libertad the coast is very rocky and steep, and 
contains no harbors until we reach the beautiful gulf of Fonseca. 
In that magnificent expanse of water Salvador possesses the old 
Spanish town and harbor of La Union. 
La Union has a suffocating climate, for the harbor is land- 
locked and the fresh sea breeze seldom enters. It is burning 
hot everywhere and you breathe the air of a furnace. Had 
Charles Dickens been in La Union he would never have de- 
scribed Marseilles as he did in‘ ‘Little Dorrit,’ for Marseiles com- 
pared with La Union would have been an arctic place. Here in 
La Union everything is hot; the wind, if there is any, the 
staring dusty streets, the sandy beach, and even the water 
within the harbor. The people do not walk on the streets in the 
daytime if they can avoid it, but remain at home smoking and 
swinging in large comfortable hammocks, for the hammock in 
this Zzerra caliente takes the place of a bed and very often of a 
chair. ; 
La Union is a considerable but a very lazy and lifeless place. 
Only when the fair takes place-and this happens a few times every 
year—the inhabitants loose their lethargy and are as gay and 
