ate Wallace (Scotchman). Many man-o'-war birds and pelicans were in
the harbour. From Belize to Porto Barrios, the eastern terminus of the
Guatemala railway. Here we are close to the scene of that wonderful and
mysterious Central American prehistoric civilization, which has left for
our antiquarians and learned men a life-work to decipher the still dumb
symbols carved on its stupendous ruins. In Guatemala, and near this
railway, are Copan and Quirigua, and probably other still undiscovered
dead cities. Some of these Guatemala structures show a quite
extraordinary resemblance to those at Angkor in Cambodia. Mitla and
Palenque are in Mexico and are equally remarkable. The latter is still
difficult to get to. Here again (Palenque) the temple shows a strange
similarity to that at Boro Budoer in Java. Was it Stamford Raffles who
said that, as far as the expenditure of human labour and skill goes, the
pyramids of Egypt sink into insignificance when compared with this
sculptured temple of Boro Budoer. Chichen-Itza, Labna, Sayil and Uxmal
are all in Yucatan and approached from Merida. How many more of such
very wonderful ruins are still hidden in the dense jungle of these
countries it will be many years yet before we may know. Some I have seen
myself, and it is still my hope very soon to visit others.

Among the wild animals of Yucatan and Honduras are the jaguar (_Felis
onca_) with spots, ocellated or eyed; and the panther (_Felis
concolor_) called puma in Arizona; the vaca de aqua or manatee, shaped
like a small whale but with two paddles; the howling monkey, largest in
America, and the spider monkey; the iguana, largest land lizard known to
history, and alligators. Alligators are confined to the Western
Hemisphere; crocodiles were supposed to be peculiar to the East, but
lately a true crocodile (_Crocodilus Americanus_) has been identified in
Florida. The alligator covers its eggs with a heap of rubbish for warmth
and so leaves them; the African crocodile, on the contrary, buries them
in the sand and then sits over them. The cardinal bird and the ocellated
turkey must not be forgotten. Here may be found the leaf-cutting ants,
which store the leaf particles in order to grow a fungus on, and which
they are very particular shall be neither too damp nor too dry. Also
another ant, the _Polyergus Rufescens_, a pure slave-hunter, absolutely
dependent on its slaves for all the comforts of life and being even fed
by them.

In Hondur