78 " ' ■ ox THK TOPOGRAPHY AXT) (iFXH-OGY . 



be even as higlily appreciated as goats. Thc}^ are iievei- slieared, and are rarely used 

 for food. The plain runs up into the hills at Honduras, much less fertile than nearer 

 this coast, and strewn with large jiebbles and l)onlders, the remains of an old beach. 

 Below Savana Buey, the plain runs down three miles to Calderas Bay, some parts of 

 whose shore are mangrove swamps, the remainder sand. On the long sand spit which 

 serves as break- water to shut the bay in from the ocean are one or two large salt-water 

 lagoons, communicating with the sea at high tide, and admirably adapted to the 

 manufacture of salt. The bay itself would be an excellent place for an excursion, 

 with plenty of gunning and fishing. The clear sea-bottom, a floor of sand on which 

 the star-fish and mollusk lie side by side, giving jjlace in deeper watei" to the forests 

 of coi-al, through wdiich myriads of fishes, more brilliantly colored than the rainbow, 

 loiter at their ease, 6y dart like flashes of red, green, or silvery light ; the endless 

 vai'iety of life below as well as above the water would give pleasurable occupation 

 alike to the sportsman or the naturalist, were it not for the infernal pest of sand-flies, 

 — a very Egyptian plague, so small as to be nearl}^ invisible, and so painful in their 

 bite that a Jersey mosquito cannot compare with them. ' ■ ' 



Between the region just described and the main mountain range is a broad tract 

 made up of heav}^ mountains, with small intervening valleys. East of the JSTizao 

 River is a high mass extending to the Jaina, in which the l^igua River heads. Again, 

 west of the Nizao, a similar ridge runs southwai'd from the peak of Vanilejo, and 

 following close to the river it suddenly bends to the westward, cari-ying some of the 

 laro-est moiiutains visible on the south side of the range. The pi'incipal of these are 

 Manaclal, east of the iS[izao, and west of it Barbacoa and loma de los Pinos. These 

 latter occupy the position of what Schomburgk calls Yaldesia, though on what ground 

 I never could learn. His name is not even known in the neighborhood. Among the 

 southern spurs of Mt. Barbacoa the Bani River takes its rise, and along the upper 

 part of its caiion is quite a good sized little settlement, called Recol, perched on the 

 hill sides. The princiiml occupations of the inhabitants are pig-hunting, and the cul- 

 ture of coffee, for which their stee}) hill sides are admirably fitted. ^ 



In the valleys of the Upper jS^izao, as at Rancho Arriba and Rancho Abajo, not 

 to mention a hundred other spots in this practically unknown region, coffee flourishes 

 in a manner almost unknown elsewhere. Mr. Runnebaum reported to me a coffee-tree 

 at Rancho Arriba whicii he declared had more than a bushel of ripe berries ! The 

 whole of this tract is a mass of sharp ridges, broad sloping hill sides, and beautiful 

 little nookg on the sides of mountain streams ; a district capable of supporting thou- 

 sands of inhabitants. The only place permanently inhabited is the valley of Maniel 

 on its western region, on the Ocoa Rivei'. The two spots, Rauchos Ai-riba and 



