THE ATLANTIC COAST AND ITS CONNECTIONS. 45 
puzzle. The fruits split while on the tree, and drop the 
nuts, which are about as large as a hen’s egg, into the 
water, where they soon germinate, and float about with 
expanded cotyledons until caught on some shoal, or at 
the bank, where they take root. 
Not once all day did we see a place to land; indeed, 
until we had ascended the river several miles there was 
no land, so high was the flood. Dense foliage, suitably 
defended with spines of palm and the no less unpleasant 
thorns of the guilandina and sarsaparilla, hid what might 
be disagreeable of animal life along shore; and as we 
could not land, neither could we plunge into the cool 
river, — that was already engaged by the alligators. 
As the sun dropped behind the trees we made fast to 
a large post in midstream, starting a whole family of 
little leaf-nosed bats out of a woodpecker s hole in this 
dead tree; and as our comida was being laid, I explored 
more carefully this curious mooring. Water-logged and 
stranded on the bottom, some twenty feet below us, it 
was a perfect image of life in death ; for every part 
above the water was covered with a luxuriant growth 
not its own, and yet perfectly in place. On one side 
clung three different orchids in seed, a cluster of pepero- 
mias in blossom, and a fine cereus, while mosses and 
ferns quite covered the interstices. We did not at that 
time know the naughty habits of the bright little bats, 1 
1 These were vampire bats (Phyllostoma sp .); and several times afterwards 
we saw cattle that had been so severely bitten that the blood was still dripping 
from their shoulders the next morning. These little fellows are about the 
size of an English sparrow; and yet they do as much harm as their much larger 
relatives of South America. They have ventured into our sleeping-room at 
Livingston; but would generally awaken us by brushing our faces with their 
wings,—perhaps because our feet (the part they usually attack) were covered. 
