The Boy Travellers in South America. Thomas Wallace Knox
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the road was put to work to fill up the cavities. There are some places that were filled two or three times before the road-bed was solid enough to stay. Since the canal company began operations here it has built some new tracks, and occasionally meets with the same trouble, but the old part of the line is all right now.
"There is a good story of how the natives of the country around Gatun had their first view of a locomotive. The track was completed to that point, and a day was set for running an engine over it. People came for long distances; they had heard wonderful stories of the witchcraft of the strangers, and there was great curiosity to know about it. There was an immense crowd, and at the appointed time the locomotive came in sight, puffing vigorously, and emitting clouds of steam and smoke. There was great excitement, which reached the pitch of terror when the creature came into the midst of the crowd, and the whistle was blown. The whole crowd fled to the river, and many of them jumped in, expecting they would be pursued, and possibly devoured.
"Finding the monster did not follow them, they gathered courage and reassembled, but stood at a safe distance, ready to run again if necessary. They sent forward their priest to examine the animal; he surveyed it carefully, and then informed his followers that it was not an animal, but a machine, in which there was a veritable demon chained, and compelled to work the crank which propelled it. The explanation was sufficient; the good priest knew it was hopeless to attempt to enlighten them on the uses of steam, and found the demon story the shortest way out of the difficulty. It is just possible, though, that he was not versed in natural philosophy, and his explanation may have been the honest result of his observation."
At several points, as they passed along, Fred observed men cutting away the bushes by the roadside, and, in reply to a question, he learned that the growth of the tropical forest was so rapid that men were kept busy all along the route in keeping it down, so that it would not touch the passing trains. "But it is not without its advantages," said their informant; "what it costs to keep down the rapid vegetation is more than compensated by the interlacing of the roots through the road-bed so that it makes a powerful resistance to the water which rushes down the slopes after the heavy rains. Many a serious injury to the road has been prevented by this mass of roots."
Their attention was called to flowers that grew in the forest, and the eyes of the youths were constantly occupied with the varieties of trees and plants that they passed in their ride. There were palms and mangroves, canes, ferns, orchids, and creeping, climbing, and hanging plants almost without number. There was hardly a tree without a parasite, and many trees were covered from the base to the topmost limb with foliage that was not their own. In some cases the trees were actually killed by the parasites that clung to them, and reminded our friends of the picture of a deer strangled by a serpent.
Fred asked for the famous product of the Isthmus, a member of the orchid family, Peristera Elata, known as "Flor del Espiritu Santo," or "Flower of the Holy Spirit." It was pointed out to them, and, at the youth's request, they stopped long enough to gather a few specimens.
The youths greatly admired the flower, and when they saw it neither of them wondered at its name nor the reverence with which it is regarded in Central American countries. It has a white blossom resembling the tulip, and in the inside of the blossom is the figure of a dove. It needs no imagination to show the form of the bird; there it rests, with its wings drooping at its sides and its head bent forward so that the bill almost touches the breast; the body of the dove is of a snowy white, while the bill is tipped with red. The flower has a perfume resembling that of the magnolia, and it blooms in the latter part of the summer months.
Frank wanted to send home some of the plants, and was told that he could do so with ease, but the bulbs would not live unless they were procured in May or June, when the stalks had been sufficiently developed to produce the flower. It is said that the early Spanish explorers of the Isthmus bowed before this flower and worshipped it, and the reverence that was then developed has never been lost. Down to quite recently it was very difficult to procure specimens of the Espiritu Santo flower, owing to this reverential feeling, and it is only since the colonization of the Isthmus by Americans that the stranger has been able to obtain all he wants. The flower is now cultivated in hot-houses, and has been transported to other tropical countries, where it is successfully grown.
Fred called attention to several trees resembling some they had seen in Java and Ceylon, and Frank picked out three or four varieties of mahogany which he could recognize. Occasionally there was a clearing devoted to bananas and other fruits, and at Gatun Station, where the road was close to the bank of the Chagres River, several natives offered the fruits for sale. The old village of Gatun was on the opposite shore of the river, and consisted of a group of huts half concealed by the foliage. In the old days of California travel, before the construction of the railway, the inhabitants of Gatun drove a prosperous trade with the gold-seekers; according to one writer, "eggs were sold for twenty-five cents apiece, and the ground-rent for a hammock was two dollars a night."
An excavating machine was in operation not far from the railway, and huge mounds of earth had been thrown up on either side of the line of the canal. Hundreds of laborers were at work, and the scene was, in many respects, a repetition of what they had encountered at Aspinwall, or, rather, at the new city which has risen near it. "This is an American machine," said their guide, as he pointed to the excavator, "and it will interest you to know that the excavators and dredges from New York have proved more satisfactory than those of French construction. They are very effective, and rarely get out of order; the French machines were admirably adapted to the Suez Canal, but the soil here is much harder than that at Suez, and requires a more powerful engine for its removal."
From Gatun the party returned to the canal entrance, and thence to their hotel in Aspinwall. Later they dined with their new friends, and when they retired for the night they felt that they had crowded a good deal of sight-seeing into their first day on the Isthmus.
CHAPTER III.
OVER THE ISTHMUS.—A PROFITABLE RAILWAY.—ISTHMUS FEVER.—TROPICAL TREES, FLOWERS, AND ANIMALS.—SIGHTS IN PANAMA.—THE CATHEDRAL.—A STROLL ON THE BEACH.—THE PARADISE OF CONCHOLOGISTS.
Next morning our friends arranged to leave for Panama by the regular train. Just as they were about starting from the hotel they were met by the manager of the railway, who invited them to occupy the directors' car, which was to be drawn by a special locomotive, and would follow the train an hour or more later. They accepted the invitation, sending their baggage by the train, with the assurance that it would be found at the station at Panama on their arrival. The directors' car afforded superior facilities for seeing the objects of interest along the route, and, besides, they were to be accompanied by the manager, and also by the official who had been of such practical assistance on the previous day.
They were joined by some of the officials connected with the construction of the canal, and altogether the party was a most agreeable one. Dr. Bronson explained to the youths that when the canal company was organized it was deemed advisable to have command