Guatemala: The Land of the Quetzal

Front Cover
C. Scribner's sons, 1887 - 453 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 394 - The whole country is divided into eighteen districts, and in all of them were so many and such stately stone buildings that it was amazing, and the greatest wonder is, that having no use of any metal, they were able to raise such structures, which seem to have been temples, for their houses were always of timber and thatched.
Page 405 - Spanish America; or a Descriptive, Historical, and Geographical Account of the Dominions of Spain, in the Western Hemisphere...
Page 392 - I made several trials of it, and found it most efficacious in turning a large column of the ants; a little of it sprinkled across one of their paths in dry weather has a most surprising effect: as soon as one of the ants touches the white powder it commences to run about wildly, and to attack any other ant it comes across. In a couple of hours round balls of the ants will be...
Page 442 - THE AMERICA'S CUP. HOW IT WAS WON BY THE YACHT AMERICA IN 1851, AND HOW IT HAS BEEN SINCE DEFENDED. By CAPT. ROLAND F. COFFIN, Author of "Sailors' Yarns," "Archibald the Cat," "How Old Wiggins Wore Ship,
Page 391 - The whole formicarium was disorganised. Big fellows came stalking up from the cavernous regions below, only to descend again in the utmost perplexity. Next day I found them busily employed bringing up the ant-food from the old burrows, and carrying it to a new one a few yards distant ; and here I first noticed a wonderful instance of their reasoning powers.
Page 444 - ... finally, a condensation of one or more of the most important narratives of recent travel, accompanied with illustrations of the scenery, architecture, and life of the races, drawn only from the most authentic sources.
Page 371 - The clocktower of the cathedral carried a great part of that edifice with it in its fall. The towers of the church of San Francisco crushed the episcopal oratory and part of the palace. The church of Santo Domingo was buried beneath its towers, and the college of the Assumption was entirely ruined. The...
Page 391 - ... dropping them over the slope, and rushing back immediately for more. They also brought out great numbers of dead ants that the fumes of the carbolic acid had killed. A few days afterwards, when I visited the locality again, I found both the old burrows and the new one entirely deserted, and I thought they had died off; but subsequent events convinced me that the survivors had only moved away to a greater distance. It was fully twelve months before my garden was again invaded. I had then a number...
Page 368 - Thursday, preceded by sounds like the rolling of heavy artillery over pavements, and like distant thunder. The people were a little alarmed in consequence of this phenomenon, but it did not prevent them from meeting in the churches to celebrate the solemnities of the day. On Saturday all was quiet, and confidence was restored. The people of the neighborhood assembled as usual to celebrate the Passover.
Page 407 - Cockburn (John). A Journey over Land from the Gulf of Honduras to the Great South Sea. Performed by John Cockburn and Five other Englishmen, who were taken by a Spanish Guarda Costa in the John and Jane...

Bibliographic information