226 THE ODYSSEY OF AN ANIMAL COLLECTOR 
mules that were used to high altitudes, was no joke and in a few 
minutes I was gasping for breath. This was more unpleasant than 
being half frozen so I quickly resumed my seat. In this treeless 
alpine zone, known as the paramo, there was precious little bird- 
life—the only two living things that I saw being a Black-rumped 
and a Red-rumped Ground-tyrant. As I sat almost frozen to the 
saddle I marvelled to think that here and even higher in the moun- 
tains lived a humming-bird, the Hill Star, and that it should 
choose such a bleak zone to live in permanently, rather than 
descend to the warmth of the lower levels. 
Having reached the highest point of the pass, we crossed a sort 
of no-man’s-land with some of the wildest scenery imaginable. It 
was quite thrilling to think that I was passing over one of nature’s 
greatest barriers and that I would soon be in a very different floral 
and faunal zone. The excitement grew when I saw a few small 
streams running eastward instead of to the west. These soon be- 
came torrents rushing wildly down, and I thought of their long 
course to the headwaters of the Amazon and then thousands of 
miles through Brazil to the Atlantic, in contrast to the rivers of 
the western Andes, which have a very short course to the Pacific 
coast. 
As we were leaving the paramo and passing into the forest zone 
at about thirteen thousand feet the first bird I saw was the Scarlet- 
bellied Tanager; then came some humming-birds and more 
tanagers. At twelve thousand five hundred feet we passed the 
dark cold-looking waters of Lake Papallacta, where I saw a few 
Andean Teal. We then descended to Papallacta—a village sur- 
rounded by mountains dominated by the picturesque and mighty 
Mount Antisana (19,335 feet). At Papallacta and the higher 
regions round about, the forest trees are stunted and gnarled and 
their branches festooned with mosses and epiphytic orchids. 
Papallacta is one of the most beautiful places I have seen, but the 
climate, although warm in the daytime, was incredibly cold at 
night. I was fortunate in being able to stay in the substantial resi- 
dence of the local Jefe Politico, which was far more comfortable 
than any of the Indians’ huts. The latter were very picturesque 
with their long thatched roofs reaching almost to the ground, 
