SKETCH OF GUSTAV WALLIS. 



387 



Corombian State of the same name ; and thence, after explorino- the 

 coast Cordillera of the State of Choco, visited the valley of the Cauca. 

 In 1867 he reached Panama and explored the Isthmus up to the volcano 

 of Chiriqui. Turning back he traveled along the northern coast of 

 Colombia till he reached the State of Santa Marta, and then turning 

 south he crossed the Sierra Nevada, and made his way to Santa Fe 

 de Bogotd, traversing the intermediate provinces. In the same year 

 (1868) he sailed on his return voyage to Europe, having traversed the 

 whole extent of tropical America from north to south. He reached his 

 German home in a state of complete physical exhaustion, as very plainly 

 appears from the photograph taken at this time, of which our engraving 

 is a copy. 



Hitherto he had been in the employ of a well-known horticultural 

 establishment in Brussels, that of Linden ; but in 1869 he received a 

 commission from the London house of Veitch & Co. to visit the Philip- 

 pines on an errand similar to that from which he had so recently re- 

 turned. He accordingly took passage for the United States, traveled 

 overland to California, and thence reached Manila by way of China and 

 Japan. He specially studied the mountain-chains of Luzon for plants 

 and other natural-history specimens. In 1871 he returned home by way 

 of Singapore and the Suez Canal. 



Before the year was at an end he was again m route for the tropical 

 regions of South America. These countries had cast their spell upon 

 him, and he could with justice say that, of all botanical travelers, he 

 knew them best. At the same time he was in hopes that he might be 

 able to visit and botanically explore a region that was in bad repute, 

 owing to the hostile character of the neighboring Indians, viz., the 

 "Pongo de Manseriche "— the grand rocky chasm through which the 

 Maranon forces its way. He had once before approached very near to 

 this locality from the Ecuador side, but had been obliged to give it a 

 wide berth, the natives manifesting their hostility. But his explora- 

 tions this time extended only to the Paramo country in New Granada, 

 and in 1873 he went back to Europe. This expedition was made at the 

 expense of the house of Linden. Again he explored the elevated moun- 

 tain-chains of the United States of Colombia ; and finally, at his own 

 charges, he began an exploration of the Pacific coast of Ecuador. 



The hardships endured by Wallis during these fifteen years of con- 

 stant pioneering in tropical forests and swamps finally undermined his 

 strength, and he was seized with a complication of diseases. He died, 

 penniless and friendless, in the hospital of the Sisters of Charity at 

 Cuenca, Ecuador, on the 20th of June, 1878. 



