Guatemala Forests. 395 
peculiarity is that one cannot boat along the shores, for trees over- 
hang and shoot out at all angles over the water to reach the sun 
with their tops. There is a:palm-tree that has the peculiarity of 
sending its trunk out horizontally from the bank, only a few feet from 
the water, for some forty feet, and then turning up vertically and 
spreading its crown of leaves to the sun. 
There are very many species of palm. Most of them are in the 
hot country, and in rich, moist hollows, or on river bottoms. 
Many send up their leaves in graceful sweeps from a subterranean 
stock, others rear their crowns on lofty shafts. The cocoanut palm 
likes the immediate sea-shore best, the manuca, flourishes along the 
great rivers. There is a peculiar palm that prefers thedry belt, abounds 
on rocky hills, and extends up to 5000 feet above sea, or over. 
This is highly valued, its leaves being used for weaving hats and 
petates, the mats or palm cloth universally used for sleeping rugs 
and for wrapping baggage and goods for transportation by mules 
or on the backs of Indians. Palm-leaves are very extensively 
used in hut-building, especially roofing ; also by travelling parties, - 
to make temporary shelters, called Chiampas, to pass rainy nights 
in the woods. But it requires the skill of the Indians to make 
them waterproof. In a few minutes fifty men can erect these 
chiampas, and sleep dry all night in a pouring rain. 
The mahogany, of which there are two or more species, never 
forms a forest, but occurs in clumps or singly among other trees, — 
and the same is the case with the rubber tree, of which also there 
are several species. These trees occur scatteringly through all the 
forests, aggregating a great total. During a freshet I have seen 
hundreds of mahogany logs dashing down the rapids of the 
Mumacinta River; to be caught up and loaded on ships at its 
mouth on the Gulf. Also many cedar logs came down from the 
upper affluent, the Ococingo River. The rubber trees are not cut. 
down, but only bled at intervals, until they succumb. The white 
Sap, or rubber milk, hardens in the air to brown-black, quivering 
cakes, which are carried by men, mules and canoes to the sea-coast 
for shipment. The rubber-hunters penetrate the woods every- 
where, and endure great privations ; they have no fixed abiding- 
Place, but move from tree to tree, gathering their crop pound 
* On swampy sea-shores and up the swampy rivers and on coral key 
the impenetrable mangrove holds sway. _ 
