Evening star., 1912-09-08

country is not thickly populated and
the majority of the houses are miser-
able thatched huts with dirt floors and
little furniture. Among these people
the eggs of the alligators that swarm
in the river are considered quite g
delicacy. In March, when the river
begins to fall. the eggs are found in
great quantities along the banks. Inc
cooked and eaten with great relish.
They are as happy and careless peo-
pie as can be found anywhere They
are quite content to take tnlnss as
they find them and to attempt no I'M
provements Everything is done in the
most primitive way. Clothes to be
washed are taken to the river, placed
on the bottoms of overturned canoes
and alternately submerged and beaten
with clubs Some maize IS grown nut
# is very poorly cultivated. With in
dustry it is possible to harvest three
or four crops a year. so great is the
fertility of the soil.
The whole region is densely wooded ex-
cent where artificial clearings have been
made. and in these woods live the wari.
or wild pig, and his arch enemy, the
iapuar. The wari go in herds of from
fifty to a hundred to protect themselves
against their common foe. But the
iaguar. though no match for the herd.
often manages to have fresh wari for his
supper. He climbs into a tree in the line
of march of the herd and when they
come beneath him leaps upon his victim,
breaking the unfortunate animars neck
as he Jumps. Then before the startled
herd can fall upon him the cunning
iaguar springs nimbly back into his tree
and there ne stays until the war; move
on. Then he can come down and enjoy
his feast undisturbed.
About a hundred miles up the river
from GreytoWn is Castillo, once Span
ish stronghold. Here are the worst
rapids on the San Juan and portage
is generally made. The freight and pas
sengers are carried across the town and
transferred to another boat, and the
Nicaraguan authorities have taken ad-
vantage of this fact to establish a Gus
tom house to collect duties on foreign
goods going UP into the interior. Ii is
also a center OF rubber trade and the
beginning of the cattle country. Here a
few cattle and many goats are raised.
A dozen miles farther up the river
again becomes sluggish and its banks
swampy, and so they are up to Lake
Nicaragua This is a beautiful body of
Mediterranean Of the west Within a
radius of few miles of it's banks lie
most of the large towns. 1t is the heart
Of Nicaragua, bound to the Atlantic by
the Sdn Juan diIu 10 the oCliS Uy ->iSd-
ragua's one railroad. In the region
around its shores and just to the west of
it are gathered most of the population S
wealth and refinement of the country.
The lake is nearly a hundred miles long
and forty miles broad. 1t lies in basin
between two ranges Of mountains and is
fed by numerous swift, short mountain
streams and by Nicaragua's other great
lake. Mana qua. In looking upon Lake
Nicaragua the thing that cannot fail to
strike the attention is the Island OF
Ometepe. with its great extinct volcanic
peak Ometepec rising 5000 feet above the
surface Of the lake. Its waters are fill
ed with alligators and fresh-wateI
sharks, and over them fly egrets and
fiocks of muscovy and whistling ducks.
The western coast of Nicaragua is un-
doubtedly of volcanic origin, and it is
probable that Lake Nicaragua was once
a bay upon the Pacific and that some
volcanic cataclysm cut off its western
connection with the ocean and it was
forced to find an outlet toward the east.