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Chap XI. HONDUKAS INTER-OCEANIC EAILWAT. 183 
at Omoa, communicating to the regions within the limits of 
their farthest extent certain features of an extra-tropical 
character of nature. Thus, in reference to the flora of 
British Honduras, I have seen oak trees growing by the 
side of cocoa-nut trees on the shore of Manati-Lagoon. 1 At 
Omoa, while tropical birds have only to pass over the coast 
range of mountains to be out of reach of the cold winds, 
every gale from the north throws numbers of snipes, ducks, 
teals, &c, on this coast. 
During our stay at Omoa I visited the northern 
terminus of the projected Honduras Inter-oceanic Eailway. 
The locality, inhabited at that time by a few Caribs, and 
by a lonely family of settlers of whom I shall say more, 
had been hitherto known by the name of Puerto Caballos ; 
which, with the authorization of the government of Hon- 
duras, has now been changed by the projectors of the 
railway into that of Port Cortez ; while a beautiful lagoon, 
separated from the sea by a strip of land of a few hundred 
yards in width, formerly called the Laguna de Puerto 
Caballos, has been christened Alvarado Lagoon, thus 
associating in a very appropriate manner the memory of 
the two great " conquistador es." I made the excursion in 
company with the American Consul and several other 
friends. The distance is such as to allow going and 
returning the same day, either by land on horseback, or by 
water. We chose the latter, leaving Omoa early in the 
morning in a canoe with two Carib boatmen, and taking 
our course along the coast in an east-northeasterly direction. 
The aspect of the land remains essentially the same 
towards that quarter. Everywhere the forest reaches down 
to the sea-shore, either with a narrow sand-beach before it, 
or with the coast breaking off in the shape of a perpendi- 
At the locality called " Cumberland Hall" by Mr. MacDonald. 
