139 
Mr. 0. Salvin's Quesal-shooting in Vera Paz. 
(thin maize cakes not unlike oat-cake), all of which have to be 
started the day previous to our own departure, on the backs of 
five Indians. Our proposed hunting-ground is distant three 
days’ journey from Coban, two of which lie along a road passable 
for mules. We therefore reckon on catching up our cargoes on 
the second day, and then proceeding on together. The road we 
intend to take is that between Coban and Cajabon, which we 
follow as far as San Agustin Lanquin, and leaving our animals 
there to be sent back to Coban, make for the ridge of mountains 
to the northward, and follow them in a westerly direction towards 
Coban. 
March 6.—The road over the Mico mountain near Yzabal, so 
graphically described by Stevens, is a trifle to that which we 
have just passed,—slippery clay, mud and stones combining to 
make progress difficult, and falling easy. In fact, it was just 
about as bad a road as one could pass mounted. Cipriano in 
descending a hill was stretched on his back. Though he com¬ 
plains a good deal of himself, his gun, I think, will prove to be 
the worst sufferer, as an old crack in the stock has opened and 
we have been obliged to tie it together with string, after the 
fashion of Gordon Cumming’s rifle. My mule was down on her 
knees several times, but we both managed to rise together. Filipe 
fared no better. To-night we are to sleep under a rancho or 
f ermita/ that is to say, a roof upon poles sheltering three crosses. 
Few of these roadside huts have any walls. Small as our lodging 
is,it affords shelter to some twenty-five souls; for besides ourselves, 
and an Indian to carry the hammocks and a change of clothes, 
some twenty Indians are congregated here for the night, some 
bound for Coban, some in the opposite direction, but all carrying 
their cargoes of onions, maize, &c., for sale or exchange. In my 
hammock I swing clear of everything except the smoke from the 
wood fire, the least objectionable of evils attendant upon a night 
spent in an Indian rancho. My blankets I had sewn into bags 
before leaving Coban, so that I am well provided against cold, 
which in the mountains is sometimes severe. This plan of sleep¬ 
ing in a bag is well adapted for a hammock, where covering below 
as well as above is necessary, as this desirable end is not so easily 
or so effectually arrived at by means of the ordinary blanket 
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