The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-12-23

recovering he left the mine Sep
TENDER 20 to return home.
The climate down there is
very unhealthful, said Nj.
Christ. 4 never saw it really
rain in my life until I get to Blue
fields. The rainfall in that town
the year before I was there was
III inches. The rainy season is
from June 20 December, but the
natives work right through the
rain. We had houses to live in,
but the atmosphere was very
damp and we had to cover our
clothes every night or they would
be saturated with moisture the
next morning.
4 always shook my clothes in
the morning to guard against
scorpions which were likely to
crawl into them at night, even if
they were hanging on the wall.
I killed nine scorpions which
shook from my clothes. I was
bitten once by a scorpion. I used
bay rum and also ammonia
promptly on the wound but the
bite brought on an attack of fever.
insects were very troublesome
and I scratched from the time I
entered the country until I left
it. There were great
many mosquitoes along the coast
ard for 100 miles up the river.
We had to beware of trantulas.
Red bugs, chiggers and army ants
were fierce. There are poisonous
snakes, but they were not as
numerous as | expected to find.
The temperature varies. We
had to sleep under a blanket every
night; then the sun would come
out hot and get as hot as 100
degrees in the shade, and then it
would rain and get cold by night.
The hot season is from December
to June
Dense forests cover the entire
eastern half of the country. There
are no roads through the forest
and only occasionally trail. The
rivers are the principal highways.
The underground in the forest is
50 dense that if you get off the
trail you have to chop your way
with a machete Every native
carries a machete.
Beans and rice formed our
principal diet at the mine, and we
had a native Indian hunter en-
ployed all the time to furnish
meat 1t is so thick in the bush
that You can't see game 20 feet
away, and the only way the In
dams get game is by initiating
the calls and getting the birds or
animals to come near. There are
deer, the pecCary and warrie
species Of wild hog, besides wild
turkeys and small animals re-
sembling rabbits. In the towns
the native Spaniards are great meat
eaters when they have money to
buy it. Meat, however, is very
expensive and | saw meat dealer
at CuiCuina sell three pounds of
beef for 81. 90. There are fish in
the rivers and the Indians use
wild figs for bait.
Minerals in great abundance
are found in that country, but as
yet no attention has been paid to
anything but gold. Free milling
and placer gold mining are all
they bother with. There are rich
silver and copper deposits and 1
heard reports of coal also.
Some Of the timber, is very
valuable and mahogany and cedar
form the principal kinds for ex-
port. Rosewood is so heavy that
it sinks when efforts are made to
transport it down the river. All
tropical fruits grow in the country,
but the natives are too lazy to
develop the fruit raising industry
as it should be pushed. Bananas
are the principal export from Blue
fields, a great deal of the supply
being brought from the plantations
at Rama and Cukra. Rama is
one of the towns where fighting