The Naturalist in Nicaragua | Page 9

volume 33 1877 pages 843-862; Philosophical Magazine volume 4 1877 pages 151-152. On the Loess of the Rhine and the Danube, Journal of Science volume 7 1877 pages 67-90. The Glacial Period in the Southern Hemisphere, Journal of Science volume 7 1877 pages 326-353. Quartzite Implements at Brandon, Nature volume 16 1877 page 101. On the Discovery of Stone Implements in Glacial Drift in North America, Journal of Science volume 8 1878 pages 55-74. The Superficial Gravels and Clays around Finchley, Ealing, and Brentford, Journal of Science volume 8 1878 pages 316-360. Notes on the Discovery of a Human Skull in the Drift near Denver, Colorado, Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at St. Louis, Missouri August 1878 volume 27 (1879) pages 298-299.
[The notes within square brackets have been added to this edition by the writer of the Introduction. ]
[Title-page of the First Edition.]
THE
NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA
A NARRATIVE OF
A RESIDENCE AT THE GOLD MINES OF CHONTALES;
JOURNEYS IN THE SAVANNAHS AND FORESTS;
With Observations of Animals and Plants in Reference to the Theory of Evolution of Living Forms.
BY THOMAS BELT, F.G.S.
AUTHOR OF "MINERAL VEINS," "THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NORTH AMERICA," ETC. ETC.
"It was his faith--perhaps is mine-- That life in all its forms is one, And that its secret conduits run Unseen, but in unbroken line, From the great fountain-head divine, Through man and beast, through grain and grass."
LONGFELLOW.
[Dedication of the First Edition.]

TO
HENRY WALTER BATES,
WHOSE ADMIRABLE WORK,
"THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS,"
HAS BEEN MY GUIDE AND MODEL,
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK,
AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP.
(SKETCH MAP OF NICARAGUA.)

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER 1.
Arrival at Greytown.--The river San Juan.--Silting up of the harbour.--Crossing the bar.--Lives lost on it.--Sharks. --Christopher Columbus.--Appearance of the town.--Trade. --Healthiness of the town and its probable cause.--Comparison between Greytown, Pernambuco, and Maceio.--Wild fruits.--Plants. --Parrots, toucans, and tanagers.--Butterflies and beetles. --Mimetic forms.--Alligators: boy drowned at Blewfields by one. --Their method of catching wild pigs.

CHAPTER 2.
Commence journey up San Juan river.--Palms and wild canes. --Plantations.--The Colorado river.--Proposed improvement of the river.--Progress of the Delta.--Mosquitoes.--Disagreeable night. --Fine morning.--Vegetation of the banks.--Seripiqui river. --Mot-mots.--Foraging ants: their method of hunting.--Ant-thrushes. --They attack the nests of other ants.--Birds' nests, how preserved from them.--Reasoning powers in ants.--Parallel between the mammalia and the hymenoptera.--Utopia.

CHAPTER 3.
Journey up river continued.--Wild pigs and jaguar.--Bungos.--Reach Machuca.--Castillo.--Capture of Castillo by Nelson.--India-rubber trade.--Rubber-men.--Method of making india-rubber.--Congo monkeys. --Macaws.--The Savallo river.--Endurance of the boatmen.--San Carlos.--Interoceanic canal.--Advantages of the Nicaraguan route. --The Rio Frio.--Stories about the wild Indians.--Indian captive children.--Expeditions up the Rio Frio.--American river steamboats.

CHAPTER 4.
The lake of Nicaragua.--Ometepec.--Becalmed on the lake.--White egrets.--Reach San Ubaldo.--Ride across the plains.--Vegetation of the plains.--Armadillo.--Savannahs.--Jicara trees.--Jicara bowls. --Origin of gourd-shaped pottery.--Coyotes.--Mule-breeding.--Reach Acoyapo.--Festa.--Cross high range.--Esquipula.--The Rio Mico. --Supposed statues on its banks.--Pital.--Cultivation of maize. --Its use from the earliest times in America.--Separation of the maize-eating from the mandioca-eating indigenes of America. --Tortillas.--Sugar-making.--Enter the forest of the Atlantic slope.--Vegetation of the forest.--Muddy roads.--Arrive at Santo Domingo.

CHAPTER 5.
Geographical position of Santo Domingo.--Physical geography.--The inhabitants.--Mixed races.--Negroes and Indians compared.--Women. --Establishment of the Chontales Gold-Mining Company.--My house and garden.--Fruits.--Plantains and bananas; probably not indigenous to America: propagated from shoots: do not generally mature their seeds.--Fig-trees.--Granadillas and papaws.--Vegetables. --Dependence of flowers on insects for their fertilisation.--Insect plagues.--Leaf-cutting ants: their method of defoliating trees: their nests.--Some trees are not touched by the ants.--Foreign trees are very subject to their attack.--Method of destroying the ants.--Migration of the ants from a nest attacked.--Corrosive sublimate causes a sort of madness amongst them.--Indian plan of preventing them ascending young trees.--Leaf-cutting ants are fungus-growers and eaters.--Sagacity of the ants.

CHAPTER 6.
Configuration of the ground at Santo Domingo.--Excavation of valleys.--Geology of the district.--Decomposition of the rocks. --Gold-mining.--Auriferous quartz veins.--Mode of occurrence of the gold.--Lodes richer next the surface than at lower depths. --Excavation and reduction of the ore.--Extraction of the gold.-- "Mantos".--Origin of mineral veins: their connection with intrusions of Plutonic rocks.

CHAPTER 7.
Climate of the north-eastern side of Nicaragua.--Excursions around Santo Domingo.--The Artigua.--Corruption of ancient names. --Butterflies, spiders, and wasps.--Humming-birds, beetles, and ants.--Plants and trees.--Timber.--Monkey attacked by eagle. --White-faced monkey.--Anecdotes of a tame one.--Curassows and other game birds.--Trogons, woodpeckers, mot-mots, and toucans.

CHAPTER 8.
Description of San Antonio valley.--Great variety of animal life. --Pitcher-flowered Marcgravias.--Flowers fertilised by humming-birds.--By insects.--Provision in some flowers to prevent insects, not adapted for carrying the pollen, from obtaining access to the nectaries.--Stories about wasps.--Humming-birds bathing. --Singular myriapods.--Ascent of Pena Blanca.--Tapirs and jaguars. --Summit of Pena Blanca.

CHAPTER 9.
Journey to Juigalpa.--Description of Libertad.--The priest and the bell.--Migratory butterflies and moths.--Indian graves.--Ancient names.--Dry river-beds.--Monkeys and wasps.--Reach Juigalpa.--Ride in neighbourhood.--Abundance of small birds.--A poor cripple.--The "Toledo."--Trogons.--Waterfall.--Sepulchral mounds.--Broken statues.--The sign of the cross.--Contrast between the ancient and the present inhabitants.--Night life.

CHAPTER 10.
Juigalpa.--A Nicaraguan family.--Description of the road from Juigalpa to Santo Domingo.--Comparative scarcity of insects in Nicaragua in 1872.--Water-bearing plants.--Insect-traps.--The south-western edge of the forest region.--Influence of cultivation upon it.--Sagacity of the mule.

CHAPTER 11.
Start on journey to Segovia.--Rocky mountain road.--A poor lodging. --The rock