File:One way round South America, from manuscript, notes and letters of Delight Sweetser Prentiss illustrated from photographs (1905) (14578805357).jpg

Identifier: onewayroundsouth00pren (find matches)
Title: One way round South America, from manuscript, notes and letters of Delight Sweetser Prentiss ... illustrated from photographs
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Prentiss, Delight Sweetser. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: Indianapolis, The Bobbs-Merrill company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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this far-away land. The wonderful Cordillera which runs from thenorth to the south of the Americas is visible evenon the Isthmus, for there is a central ridge fromwhich the country slopes in either direction tothe sea. The lowest point in the whole rangelies here, so this seems the natural place toattempt to force a passageway from ocean toocean. The railroad ascends the course of a smallstream on the Pacific side and descends the val-ley of the Chagres to the Atlantic. The prettyscenery of the Isthmus was a surprise. Thereare many wooded hills around which the riverswind, taking the railroad along an almost con-tinually curving course. Everywhere is luxuri-ant green, and all over the lowlands is the fas-cinating, beautiful, unhealthful jungle. A littlestrip has been cleared on either side of the track,and here and there attempts have been made tocultivate bits of ground, but the jungle closes inlike a green sea, tangled, impenetrable. Palmsand bananas and bamboo are abundant, and we
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ACROSS THE ISTHMUS 175 occasionally saw the handsome head of a splen-did tree, the gramalota, which rises on a loftytrunk and spreads its green branches like a mon-ster umbrella. One of these monarchs of thejungle escaped destruction in the clearing for therailway, and you might almost reach out andtouch its great trunk as you pass. It was underthis beautiful tree that one of the surveyors ofthe railroad died, and it stands as his monument. The darkies who inhabit the little settlementsalong the line live in the most primitive fashion.They offered us many strange fruits for sale.One looked like a huge cranberry, with a limabean on the end for a stem. The flesh of thisfruit felt exactly like a clam, but it tasted like acrab apple! The oranges are sugar sweet. Oneis warned against the danger of eating fruit bythe very cautious, but it is worth while to takeones life in ones hands occasionally, to eat agood mango. We had to remind ourselves that we were in anew country, the Republic of C

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