Our man had a laced jacket, black leather leggings, and a pair of silver spurs fastened upon his bare feet, which seemed at a little distance to have well polished boots on, they were so black and shiny.
The railway which took us from Havana to Batabano had some striking peculiarities.

For a part of the way the track passed between two walls of tropical jungle.

The Indian fig trees sent down from every branch suckers, like smooth strings, which rooted themselves in the ground to draw up more water.

Acacias and mimosas, the seiba and the mahagua, with other hard-wood trees innumerable, crowded close to one another; while epiphytes perched on every branch, and creepers bound the whole forest into a compact mass of vegetation, through which no bird could fly.

We could catch the strings of convolvulus with our walking-sticks, as the train passed through the jungle.