PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 3X7 



of Las Huacas, and I visited it, arriving before sunset. There were sixty 

 or seventy natives present, the guests of the family of Carrillo, who fed 

 them well and furnished wine of the coyal palm as a beverage. Dancing 

 and singing were kept up to a late hour, the padre as usual contribu- 

 ting his share towards the merry-making. 



ISText morning the padre and I with two men started on the trail 

 used by rubber-men between Las Huacas and the Eio Oro. A horse 

 had never been over this trail, and it required an expert guide to follow 

 it. The padre and I were mounted, and were preceded by the men who 

 trimmed a way for us with their machetes. For the first two hours 

 we were on the plateau of Las Huacas between 2,000 and 3,000 feet 

 above the sea. In the bed of a stream called Salto de los Perros, where 

 it was crossed by the trail, there was a bowlder of hard basalt nearly 2 

 feet in diameter, on one side of which there were eight parallel grooves 

 up and down, the widest and deepest of which was just of the width of 

 an ordinary celt. The incline of this side was about 75°. I repeatedly 

 noticed celts which had apparently been sharpened after use, and believe 

 that this was a grindstone for that purpose. 



From the edge of the plateau there was a steep break to the small 

 Eio Medio, some 1,500 or more feet below. Off to the right there was 

 a sheer wall over the edge of which poured a small stream. The In- 

 dians claim 3,000 feet for this fall, and it apj)arently was several hun- 

 dred, the water breaking into mist towards the bottom. We descended 

 along the edge of ridge, dismounted, and the poor horses slid a good 

 part of the way on their haunches, one man leading and another driving. 

 After reaching the stream we kept the bed of it j most of the way the 

 horses were led, and slipped and stumbled over the bowlders as best 

 they might. Occasionally short cuts were taken across bends, which 

 were particularly enjoyed by me. In the morning while trying to ascend 

 a steep bank my horse fell back and rolled over into the stream below. 

 The stirrups were narrow and I could not free one foot, and in the 

 struggle my foot was hurt so that I could not wear a shoe 5 so when in 

 the afternoon I had to walk through these woods without a shoe, travel- 

 ling was anything but pleasant. At last, late in the afternoon, the guide 

 stopped at a camping ground after the most terrible trip in my expe- 

 rience. In the bed of this river Medio, a tributary of the Oro, black 

 basalt formed the rock with veins of quartz. Right in our camp were 

 killed an otter, a pavon, and two pavos. There were tracks of deer, 

 tapir, and tigers. Below the camp green quartz appeared in the rock 

 of the bed of the stream. During the day fragments of pottery were 

 noticed several times where slight washes had occurred, or in the banks 

 of ravines. My couch was of palm branches on the solid rock. About 

 1 a. m. next morning I was awakened by the swaying or horizontal 

 motion of what I supposed a solid bedstead ; the trees were waving in 

 that not unusual occurrence, an earthquake. An hour and a half later 

 there was another shock. 

 H. Mis. 26 52 



