TROPICAL NATURE IN COLOMBIA 



291 



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Sthangleb Trees. The figure at the left shows a young strangles, that at the 

 right shows an old one. The .tree about which the latter wrapped itself was killed 

 and has rotted away. 



Starting the day after our arrival we rode eighteen miles into the 

 interior on mule back to the Cincinnati coffee plantation, the home of 

 Mr. Flye. That ride was wonderful ! As we went higher the luxuriance 

 of the vegetation increased and the trail often hugged the brink of a 

 precipice where one could look for miles over the virgin forest and 

 banana plantations below. Like the hunter in the "Lady of the Lake," 

 we 



often paused, so strange the road, 

 So wondrous were the scenes it showed. 



We lived at the plantation for a month in a clean little adobe house 

 at an altitude of 4,500 feet. In half a day we could walk down to Minca, 

 at about 2,000 feet, or up to the top of San Lorenzo, 8,300 feet. Beyond 

 the coffee the tropical forest stretched away, unbroken ; in one direction 

 to the desert along the coast, in the other toward the snow peaks at the 

 crest of the Sierras. Every afternoon it was cloudy, usually there was 

 rain. 





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Buttresses. 



