“And these bright red roads!” exclaimed Frank. “And all those East Indians! Why, it’s like being in another world!”
“And just look at the way all the houses are built on posts or brick pillars!” put in Tom.
“Yes, that’s to keep them dry,” Rawlins explained. “In the rainy season the streets get flooded at times and so they build their houses on stilts.”
But all the other sights they had seen were forgotten when at last they came to the huge botanic station. Here they drove for miles through a veritable tropical forest among gigantic trees, under trailing lianas, beside jungle streams, all of which, as far as appearances went, might have been in the very heart of South America. But everywhere the red earth roads were as smooth and well kept as asphalt, the grass was green and velvety, beds of gorgeous flowers were all about, and all the trees and plants were carefully labeled. Only such things were in evidence to show it was a park or garden and not the untamed wild and when, to the boys’ delight, they saw a flock of gaudy parrots feeding overhead and caught a glimpse of huge-billed toucans, they felt as though they were actually in the “bush.” Everywhere, too, were canals filled with the gigantic leaves and huge flowers of the Victoria Regia lily and at one spot was a lily and lotus-filled lake, bordered with thickets of palms and fairly swarming with herons, egrets, and boat-bills, with a pair of great, scarlet macaws screeching from a dead limb over the water.
“Gosh!” exclaimed Frank. “It’s like a zoological garden, only better. Oh, look, look there! What’s that?” As he spoke, a great, dark object had risen through the water and with a hissing noise slowly disappeared.
“Only a manatee,” laughed Rawlins. “Didn’t you recognize it? It was one of those fellows that led you astray in Santo Domingo, you know.”
“But I never expected to see one here, right in the town,” declared Frank.
“Lots of ’em in here,” said the diver, “and plenty of alligators too. But everywhere you go about Georgetown you’ll find wild animals and birds. See herons and egrets feeding beside the roads and scarlet ibis on the mud flats alongside the docks. The city’s just at the edge of the jungle, you might say, and you could go right through to the Amazon without ever seeing a sign of civilization.”
“Golly, I do hope Dad goes after those fellows!” cried Tom. “After seeing this place I’m just crazy to see the real jungle.”
“And Indians!” added Frank.