184 MR. R. SPRUCE’S VISIT TO THE CINCHONA FORESTS 
Orchidee were tolerably abundant, but prettier even than these 
were two Bromeliacee ; the one seemed at first sight merely a 
mass of long scarlet flowers growing out of the moss on old trees 
and stones, for the leaf-sheaths are imbricated into a little bulb, 
and the blade is reduced to a spine; the other (apparently an 
сЬтга) has broadish soft leaves and large violet flowers looking 
at a distance more like those of an Iris or an Amaryllidea. 
On the 4th of August my company started for the forest, our 
destination being the Rio de Puma-cocha, a large stream rising in 
Azuay and falling into the Chanchán at about 4000 feet altitude, 
on the farther side of which much Red Bark has been got in 
former years. We started on horseback, and a mule carried our 
necessaries. My counsel was, to leave the horses, but Bermeo felt 
sure I should not be able to perform the distance on foot ; we had 
gone, however, a very short way when we found it necessary to cut 
our way through the forest, for the track had got overgrown in 
two years that no one had passed along it; nor was it possible 
without wasting a good deal of time to open a passage overhead 
so that a man might pass mounted; I therefore preferred going 
on foot most of the way. We reached the banks of the Puma- 
cocha at an early hour of the afternoon, but the ford which Ber- 
meo had passed in former years had been destroyed by the falling 
of a cliff, and in its place we found a deep whirlpool; so with the 
drift-wood along the banks we set to work to make a bridge where 
the river was narrowed between two rocks, and when completed 
carried across it our baggage, saddles, &c. Then, after a long 
search, we found a place where we could swim the horses over, and 
by rolling down a good deal of earth and stones we made a way 
for them to ascend on the other side. Once across, we selected 
а site for our hut among vegetable-ivory palms, and thatched the 
hut with fronds of the same. Close by were the remains of a 
platanal, showing that the spot had formerly been inhabited, and 
fortunately still bearing a sufficient number of plantains to cook 
along with our salt meat, during the two days we calculated on 
remaining there. Our horses were taken to the top of a neigh- 
bouring hill, where there was a bed of one of those large succulent 
Panicums called * Gamalote," which afford a very nutritious food 
for cattle, and were there made fast for the night. Here we 
slept tranquilly, save that we were occasionally aroused by the 
snuffing of bears around us ; and before daylight Bermeo and his 
companion were on foot, and making their way through the forest 
in quest of Cinchona-trees. They returned at seven o'clock, 
