the savanna was
flooded in places to a depth of one or two feet. Among the pedestrians
that morning were several colonists who were on their way home to the
States, and who, singularly enough, were obliged to walk out of La
Gloria through mud and water very much as they had walked in several
months before, although between the two periods there had been for a
long time a good dry road.

It was that morning that we, in the camp, heard a peculiar rushing sound
which we at first mistook for water sweeping through the woods. On going
down the road to investigate, however, we found that the noise was the
deafening chorus of millions of little frogs--some contended that they
were tree toads--which had come in with the flood or with the rain
which fell in the night. Never before had I seen such a sight. The frogs
were everywhere, on logs, stumps, in the water, and along the road; bits
of earth jutting out of the water would be covered with them. They were
all of one color--as yellow as sulphur--and appeared to be very unhappy.
I saw large stumps so covered with these frogs, or toads, as to become
pyramids of yellow. Whether frogs or toads, they seemed averse to
getting wet and were all seeking dry places. I saw a snake about two
feet long, who had filled himself up with them from head to tail,
floating lazily on the surface of the water. No less than five of the
yellowbacks had climbed up on his head and neck, and he had only energy
enough left to clasp his jaws loosely upon one of them and then let go.
The snake seemed nearly dead from over-eating. The frogs disappeared in
a day or two as suddenly as they had come.

At the time of this small-sized flood, a party of surveyors were camped
upon the savanna near Central avenue and about a mile from the port.
Their camp was high enough to escape the water, but they were pretty
well surrounded by it. One of the men, finding deep water running in the
road, went a-fishing there and boasted that he had caught fish in
Central avenue! The water soon subsided, and the generally accepted
explanation of the sudden flood was that it had been caused by the
overflow of the Maximo, and that there had been heavy rains, or a
cloudburst, twelve or fifteen miles away.

April was a warm month, but by no means an uncomfortable one. The lowest
temperature recorded was 67 deg.; the highest, 94 deg.. The weather was
delightful; the breezes were fresh and fragrant; flowers were blossoming
everywhere;