THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



189 



districts are traversed with difficulty, . 

 owing to the numerous and crooked lit- 

 tle (but often deep) bayous by which 

 they are traversed. Over all the higher 

 lands exist heavy forests, their special 

 characteristic being perhaps the preva- 

 lence of flowers and fruits of large size, 

 many of them indeed gigantic. There 

 is the full proportion of climbing plants 

 found in tropical regions, binding togeth- 

 er both trunks and crowns into a dense 

 thicket, and a full proportion of them 

 are thorny or prickly, Probably the 

 most troublesome of such plants in cer- 

 tain districts are the reclining Sclerias 

 and other Cyperaceous species, whose 

 toothed edges catch upon even the 

 smoothest surfaces and may cut to the 

 bone the finger which sweeps suddenly 

 across them. 



Among the most conspicuous of the 

 tree families are the Lecytbidacese, Sapo- 

 tacese, Meliaceae, Leguminosae, Palmae, 

 Apocynacese and Laurinese. The Mel- 

 astomaceae, so numerous, large and con- 

 spicuous in the Andean flora, are here 

 few and small, while Compositse ot all 

 kinds are apparently scarcer than in any 

 other region which I have ever visited. 

 Among climbing and twining plants the 

 Leguminosae and Bignoniaceae are the 

 most conspicuously represented families 

 and probably the most numerously also, 

 while the Malpighiaceae and Passiflora- 

 ceas are well represented. Although the 

 economic features of the flora will be 

 made the subject of a special report, refer- 

 ence may here be made to the abundance 

 of soft woods yielding lumber suitable 

 for building, as compared with other 

 tropical forest regions. Hard woods, of 

 elegant texture and high polish, are how- 

 ever very abundant also. 



The term "ferocious" will perhaps 

 characterize the faunal life more fully 

 than any other single word can do. No- 

 where else have I ever seen the animal 



life so fully provided for ofiiense and de- 

 fense as here. This statement applies 

 to every class of the animal kingdom, 

 but with special force to its smaller 

 members. The tigers and tiger-cats, 

 notwithstanding that they were frequent 

 visitors to the camp, entering the tent 

 and even during the last few nights of 

 my stay the house itself, will endeavor 

 to escape from man upon most occasions, 

 but the fleas, jiggers, golofas, goropatas 

 and mosquitos know neither fear nor 

 rest in the region where we spent the 

 most of our time. While some of the 

 members of the party appeared proof 

 against these insects' attacks, so that 

 the creatures would crawl over without 

 biting them, the most of us suffered 

 greatly, while in some instances the nev- 

 er-ceasing strain upon the nerves, with- 

 out respite of quiet sleep for days or even 

 weeks together, was sufficient to serious- 

 ly threaten even life itself, to make all 

 other difficulties and hardships appear 

 light in comparison and to render all en- 

 joyment impossible, save such as could 

 be derived from the pursuit of the many 

 interesting studies which the region af- 

 forded. Every morning upon arising 

 some time was devoted to digging the 

 chigoes from the feet, chiefly from under 

 the nails. One member of the party had 

 nineteen of these creatures removed from 

 one of his feet at a sitting. At another 

 time twenty-four ticks were taken from 

 the back of one of the members of the 

 party. One member of the party was 

 stung by a scorpion, and while they were 

 n irrowly escaped upon numerous other 

 occasions, the entrance of poisonous 

 serpents to our beds was not entirely un- 

 k lown. Toward the mountains the 

 most of the insect pests rapidly disap- 

 peared and there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that districts exist there which are 

 entirely free from them, but at most of 

 the points along the river they occasion 



