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Orchidece were tolerably abundant, but prettier even than these 

 were two Bromeliacece ; 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 

 jEchmecb) 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 E-io de Puma-cocha, a large stream rising in 

 Azuay and falling into the Chanchan at about 4000 feet altitude, 

 on the farther side of which much Eed 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 

 a 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 coolt 

 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 

 Panic ums 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, 



