Chap. XIY.— B. P.] DR. GREEN AND ME. COTTRELL. 2ol 
lantern jaws of the typical Yankee, as drawn by British 
artists, but, on the contrary, are fair and comely to the 
view, and pleasant to shake hands with. 
But to return to Dr. Green and the consulate, we 
soon transacted the official business which had brought 
us there and sallied out to inspect' the town. On 
leaving, Dr. Green, in a lugubrious tone, begged me 
to subscribe towards fencing in the burial ground, 
which, it appeared, was sadly in want of repair. Of 
course I complied with this melancholy request, and 
was afterwards told that Dr. Green had long since 
chosen his own particular six feet of ground, which 
he occasionally visited with a view to “ jolliness,” I 
suppose. 
Greytown is built on a sandbank formed by nature 
in this wise. When the great Lake of Nicaragua 
forced an outlet by the channel now called the river 
San Juan, its waters entered the sea close to the spot 
where Greytown now stands. In process of time 
the detritus commonly called silt, brought down by the 
river from the extensive watershed which it drains, 
accumulated right and left of this mouth in the shape 
of a sandy beach; that to the left steadily extending 
along and fringing the mainland, stretched right aAvay 
to the northward, and thus formed the western side of 
the harbour. This beach, which is composed of a black 
metallic-looking sand, ends abruptly where the Indian 
river empties itself into the sea, about two miles and 
a half north of Greytown, which thus as it were 
enters a protest against its waters having anything to 
do with so gloomy-looking a deposit, and which is 
