mestic meal is thrown into the street. There is no drainage in
those villages; strange to say, even in the larger cities there is none.
Offal of every description is cast forth into the highways and byways;
and at that moment, with one accord, down sweep the grim sentinels to
devour it. They feast upon carrion and every form of filth. They are
polution personified, and yet they are the salvation of the indolent
people, who would, but for the timely service of these ravenous birds,
soon be wallowing in fetid refuse and putrefaction under the fierce rays
of their merciless sun.

In the twilight we wandered by a crescent shore that was thickly strewn
with shells. They were not the tribute of northern waters: they were as
delicately fashioned and as variously tinted as flowers. All that they
lacked was fragrance; and this we realized as we stored them carefully
away, resolving that they should become the nucleus of a museum of
natural history as soon as we got settled in our California home.

We had crossed the Isthmus in safety. Yonder, in the offing, the ship
that was to carry us northward to San Francisco lay at anchor. For three
days we had suffered the joys of travel and adventure. On the San Juan
river we had again and again touched points along the varying routes
proposed, by the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua and the Walker
Commission, as being practical for the construction of a great ship
canal that shall join the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. We had passed
from sea to sea, a distance of about two hundred miles.

The San Juan river, one hundred and twenty miles in length, has a fall
of one foot to the mile. This will necessitate the introduction of at
least six massive locks between the Atlantic and the lake. Sometimes the
river can be utilized, but not without dredging; for it is shallow from
beginning to end, and near its mouth is ribbed with sand-bars. For
seventy miles the lake is navigable for vessels of the heaviest draught.
Beyond the lake there must be a clean-cut over or through the mountains
to the Pacific, and here six locks are reckoned sufficient. Cross-cuts
from one bend in the river to another can be constructed at the rate of
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or less, per mile. The canal
must be sunk or raised at intervals; there will, therefore, at various
points be the need of a wall of great strength and durability, from one
hundred and thirty to three hundred feet in height or de