366 DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. f Chap. XXII.—B. P. 
dents of hardship and difficulty inevitable in carrying 
on surveying operations in the dense primeval forests 
of a tropical country. I have called it the u Junc¬ 
tion of the Atlantic and Pacific,” because on leaving 
the surveyors, after having penetrated about halfway 
across from the Pacific, and still cutting their road 
manfully through the thick undergrowth towards the 
Atlantic, I retraced my steps with the intention of 
starting to meet them from that side, and happily ac¬ 
complished my object after great exertions and en¬ 
during many hardships. The sketch by Lieutenant 
Oliver, E.A., who was one of the party, portrays the 
meeting or “Junction,” which was of no small im¬ 
portance, as it enabled the half-starved surveyors to 
return and finish their work, with no fear, at all 
events, of a recurrence of empty larders. 
Soon after my return to England, the gentleman with 
whom I had originally hoped to arrange the carrying 
out of my plans, made overtures for the possession of 
the concession now extended for a year; of course I 
cheerfully acceded to his terms, as a drowning man 
catches at a straw, transferring so far as I was con¬ 
cerned, my rights and privileges to him; hut to this 
hour he has not redeemed his obligations. Worse 
still, by a misplaced confidence, impediments have 
arisen in the way of the realization of the project 
which, I fear, are insurmountable. 
I have thought it desirable in the public interest, 
even at the risk of these details being voted dry and 
uninviting, briefly to enumerate the trials and diffi¬ 
culties necessarily incidental to every project of a like 
