182 OMOA — WILD SCENERY. Book I. 
otherwise than by the bed of the river itself. The latter is 
a transparent stream rushing down in cascades, over rocks 
of gneiss, ?nica-slate, and amphibolic schists, overshadowed 
by gigantic trees. Its embankments are covered with a 
variety of ferns, and with a mossy carpet of creeping lyco- 
podiacece. With our guns to carry, and with the wish 
to keep them dry, it was no easy matter to pass along in 
the midst of the river, now wading through a widened por- 
tion of it, then leaping from one slippery rock to the other, 
where the water foamed around, rushing through the narrow 
passages between blocks and boulders. We at last found 
it too difficult to proceed farther. We then left the river 
and tried to ascend one of the hills on its side, which we" 
succeeded in doing. But with scarcely any possibility of 
looking beyond the next trees, whilst the forest extended 
over steep ridges and through narrow gorges in almost 
every direction, we had to retrace our steps, and reached 
home completely exhausted with fatigue. 
What struck me on my little excursions in the vicinity of 
Omoa, was the small number of tropical birds, while differ- 
ent kinds of aquatic birds of a more northern climate were 
numerous. Mr. Julius Levy, at Belize, a young gentleman 
who takes a very lively and intelligent interest in the 
natural history of these regions, told me that during the 
winter the greater number of birds to be seen on the coast 
of British Honduras belong to the fauna of the United 
States, while the characteristic birds of the tropical region, 
such as parrots, toucans and others, have disappeared. 
This also seems to be the case on the coast of the State of 
Honduras ; but I did not make a similar observation in 
Nicaragua. The influence of the northers of the Mexican 
gulf does not seem to reach as far as the latter country ; 
while they sweep over Yucatan and are very sensibly felt 
