The Tomahawk., 1916-04-06

0F THE CoRoZAL. CAVE
! healthful island, with warm climate
we'll tempered by the trade winds, and
well cultivated almost everywhere.
With it's splendid roads and natural
beauties, it is and will always be at
tractive to the casual traveller, as we'll
as to the investigator OF it's scientific
| character and resources.
In the interior valleys, plantations
Of tobacco are laid out. The plants
| are protected by sheets of cheese
| cloth which, with their sharply defined
borders, seem like homogeneous fields
of snow upon the deep green of the
hills. Even the steep slopes of the
hills bear here and there their little
| patches of tobacco or of other crops,
| centering about a native hut perched
| precariously near the top, and set OH
by the graceful royal palms. Higher up,
the character of the ground or of the
| region is unsuitable for tobacco, yet
even here coffee and cocoa are grown
under the shade of specially planted
trees. Little remains of the larger for
| est, for wood becomes scarce when so
many demand it daily for fires. Only
on the higher peaks of the great cen
trail mountains are there any relics OF
the primeval growth that once ex-
tended so widely.
On the TANKS of the main east-and-
west backbone of the island, composed
of igneous rocks, there are broken lev
els and hills of limestone, full OF
marine fossils and other indications of
their origin at the border of the ocean
| Since their formation the land has
| risen so as to lift them many hun
| dreds of feet above their former level.
Where the rivers have worn against
them, they display stratified faces OF
| especial interest to the geologist and
| paleontologist.
Passing the great divide from north
to south, the mountains drop more
rapidly to the foothills and to the
coastal plains. In the southeast the
ground is still suitable for sugar and
cocoanut groves; but coming west, the
effect of the heights in cutting off the
moisture of the trades becomes more
marked, and a semiarid region with
it's characteristic cactus is encoun'
tered. Here the cane can be grown
only by extensive irrigation, which the
insular government has undertaken
with great SUCCESS and profit. Toward
the southwest, the land becomes
typical desert, and about Lake Guani-
ca it supports little besides the assocl'
alton of cactus plants.
The corozal Cavern.
| In the limestone regions, hundreds
of large and small caverns have been
excavated by underground streams
| One of these, near Corozal, is well
worthy of description. The valley is
| a beautiful wide basin, surrounded by
peculiar triangular white hills of lime
stone, and the cave mouth, about forty
feet in height, is reached by means OF
| creepers and lodges or the very face OF
| the cliff. Once it is gained, the down
ward view is a striking and character
istic panorama of hill and field and
| stream. On the sides of the entrance
there are hundreds Of spider webs,
each with the dried remains of its
| casual collection Of prey. Trending
| inward and upward, the way narrows
until after four hundred yards or mora
of walking and scrambling and creep
ing, one energies into daylight through
small hole on the other side of the
| hill. Thousands of bats hide in the
holes of the arched roof, or cling to
| it's rough surfaces. On the walls
| there are peculiar forms of insects
and huge arachnida, with long deli
| cate antennae which serve them in
place of their virtually useless eyes.
BY way of contrast, tho cave in tho
hills above Gales is one with many
| mouths, and a huge vaulted chamber
with stalactites and stalagmites
above and below.
| On account of the dominant Span
ish influence for so many centuries,
the population naturally exhibits
remembrance of the characteristics Of
that race. Only small section, how
ever, has retained it's purity, of which
it is Justly proud; for the most part
the people are mixtures of Spanish.
negro and Indian characters. 1t is
strange that so few are found with
unmixed African features, although q
| certain settlements. they too, have
| preserved many of the customs as wei
as the physique Of their ancestors