Guatemala Forests. 391 
These extensive pastures are close-cropped, and poor because of 
two creeping herbs that carpet the ground, flat and close-pressed to 
the surface. One of these is a geranium. These pastures have 
existed probably for centuries, and are mostly above 9000 feet. 
Below this altitude, next below these pastures, considerable wheat is 
grown ; also some corn, but this does not thrive well above 8000 
feet, but below that elevation it is the principal crop to the sea- 
level, and is the universal and chief food of all the people. 
At 8000 to 9000 feet we are also in the region of the potato. 
These are small, but have such a nutty and delicious flavor that, 
cooked in their jackets one can eat them like nuts, without any 
accompaniment ; not even salt seems necessary. They are never 
planted, but in the dry season a row of men and women begin at 
the bottom of a slope and hoe the ground down-hill-ward, picking 
up all the tubers that appear, and enough remain for seed for the 
next crop, while at the same time the ground is made mellow for 
their sprouting, all over the ground as if they had been sown- 
These potatoes are packed in nets or large leaves lined with grass, 
and carried on the Indian’s back to the lower country and the 
cities for sale, 
To make the story complete I must add oats to the list for this 
region, but they are raised only to a small extent, and not at all by 
Indians, and only for the horses of the hated white man. 
And now we must descend lower and leave this lovely and 
attractive region of bright sun and balmy breezes on one day, or 
on one side of a mountain, and of driving mists and chilly winds on 
the other. The conditions of life seem near perfection, no enervat- 
ing heat, no insects, no malaria, seldom frost, and no snow, hail, 
or other inclemency. It is a sanitarium unexcelled, and would be 
a perfect resort for summer or winter, and may be when the Inter- 
Continental Railway is built. On these charming alfos.and table- 
lands the native races have lived for ages, slowly gaining headway 
on the forests and deriving a subsistence, as do their descendants 
at the present day, by the cultivation of corn chiefly, and also frijol, 
or black beans, potatoes, a sweet pumpkin, and chile, or red pep- 
pers. As now, they made their picturesque clothes from the cotton 
of the hot lands, and the wool of the cold. But, though they 
lived ina Paradise, and perhaps for that fact, they do not seem to 
