pths, according
to his moral anatomy or the chemistry of his compo- sition, and the action of environment upon it alL
The prevailing winds along this coast are southerly during summer, and northerly during the winter months ; so that after leaving Punta Mala our captain kept well in shore, which here is high, and bold, and covered with rich foliage down to the water's edge. Passing Punta Mariato our course was still due west, until we cleared the palm-covered island in the vicin- ity, uninhabited save by monkeys and birds of bril- liant plumage, when we took a more northerly direc- tion along the shores of Nueva Granada, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua, over whose lakes and rivers Gil Gon- zalez and his crew crept so cautiously. The second day saw us off San Juan del Sur, where those who made the journey by way of Nicaragua took ship for San Francisco.
By the Nicaragua route passengers disembarked on the Atlantic side at San Juan del Norte, otherwise called Greytown. Stepping from the ocean steamer on board a steam river craft, they ascended the San Juan river to the Machuca Rapids, where they landed and walked a portage of about a mile, while the lug- gage was conveyed up the rapids in bongos manned by naked, long-haired, tawny natives. Above the Machuca rapids, smaller steamboats carried them to the Castillo rapids, where there was another por- tag^e of half a mile. Then takino;; another and a larger steamboat, they continued up the river to San Cdrlos, crossed Lake Nicaragua to La Virgen, and thence proceeded overland by mules, or on foot, to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific, where they reem- barked on board an ocean steamer for San Francisco. The whole distance is about 165 miles, though in- cluding the bends in the river it is oftener reckoned at more ; 75 miles on the river, the same on the lake, and twelve or fifteen miles overland to the ocean. By the Panamd route, before the building of the rail-
