Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . Plwto by W. r. BcycT THE MUCH PRIZED IGUANA This lizard, whicli attains a length of five feet, is esteemed a delicacy in Panama of fish as an article of diet, catching them chieflyby night lines or the unsportsmanlike practice ofdynamiting the stream, which has been prohibitedby the Panama authorities, although the prohibi-tion is but little enforced. Now and then an alligator slips lazily from theshore into the stream but they are not as plentifulhere as in the tidal waters of the lower river. Oc-casionally, too, a shrill cry from one of our boat
Panama and the canal in picture and prose .. . Plwto by W. r. BcycT THE MUCH PRIZED IGUANA This lizard, whicli attains a length of five feet, is esteemed a delicacy in Panama of fish as an article of diet, catching them chieflyby night lines or the unsportsmanlike practice ofdynamiting the stream, which has been prohibitedby the Panama authorities, although the prohibi-tion is but little enforced. Now and then an alligator slips lazily from theshore into the stream but they are not as plentifulhere as in the tidal waters of the lower river. Oc-casionally, too, a shrill cry from one of our boat-men, taken up by the other two at once, turnsattention to the underbrush on the bank, where theungainly form of an iguana is seen scuttling for igS PANAMA AND THE CANAL. CEUCES—A LITTLE TOWN WITH A LONG HISTORY safety. Ugliest of beasts is the iguana, a greenish,bulbous, pop-eyed crocodile, he serves as the bestpossible model for a dragon to be slain by someSt. George. The Gila monster of Arizona is averitable Venus of reptiles in comparison to him,and the devil fish could give him no lessons in re-pulsiveness. Yet the Panamanian loves him dearlyas a dish. Let one scurry across the road, or,dropping from a bough, walk on the surface of ariver—as they literally do—and every dark-skinnednative in sight will set up such a shout as we mayfancy rose from oldtime revellers when the boarshead was brought in for the Yuletide feast. Notmore does the Mississippi dar-key love his possum an sweettaters, the Chinaman hisbirds nest soup and water-melon seeds, the Frenchmanhis absinthe or the Germanhis beer than does the Pan-amanian his iguana. In a mild way the Chagresmay lay claim to being ascenic stream, and perhaps infuture days when the excel-lence of its
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Keywords: ., bookauthorabbotwil, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1913
