THE MULE ROAD AND GUADUAS. 



81 



(From "Riverside Natural History," by permission of Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co.) 



board, some of the men came down 

 to the boat, dragging a very large 

 rattlesnake, which they had just 

 killed near the spot where I had 

 picked up the shells. It was not 



so brightly colored as those that we have in Virginia, but was rusty 

 brown, with a series o£ dull yellowish, diamond-shaped marks along 

 its back. The native name for rattlesnake is " cascabel." 



Just before reaching Yeguas the river becomes very rapid, and 

 curves to the left for almost half a circle. Yeguas, which is on the 

 western bank, is a collection of four or five bamboo and thatch 

 huts upon the top of a gravelly bank, some twenty feet above the 

 water. One of these huts serves as a station for the Dorada Rail- 

 road, which runs from here to Honda, about fourteen miles above. 

 We arrived at ten o'clock, just half an hour too late iox the morn- 

 ing train, so were compelled to wait on board until half past three. 

 The road is narrow gauge, the cars small and not very clean, and 

 the country hot and dusty. At Yeguas the character of the coun- 

 try changes abruptly, the heavy forests disappear ; their place is 

 taken by level plains, good examples of geological terraces, with 

 here and there high, flat-topped, and barren hills. The strata in 

 the hills lie horizontall}^, and erosion has produced the same style 

 of landscape as seen in many pictures of Arizona. Upon leaving 



