FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 107 



in which we had been hitherto. The vegetation also showed 

 a change at this place. Patches of a silvery green moss (Sela- 

 ginella sp.) covered parts of the ground, and mosses and lichens 

 decorated many of the tall tree trunks around us Trees of 

 imposing grandeur surrounded us, and on all side-; the tapering 

 columns of their trunks seemed like the pillars of Nature's temple 

 the green roof of which was very many feet above. Not a sound 

 of animal life was heard however, which fact seemed strange 

 as we had expected to find game of .some kind. Our way now 

 lay along the top of the ridge, and as there; was little or no 

 underwood we progressed rapidly. On our left a precipice 

 several hundred feet in depth yawned, and ran parallel with the 

 track for a considerable distance, while on the right the ridge 

 rolled away at an incline of about 45° to the valley on the 

 North East. We next halted at a spot on this ridge, 

 not far from the summit of the mountain, and where it was 

 convenient to leave some of our baggage, chielly plant?, 

 etc., collected on the way up. Taking advantage of this halt, 

 Messrs. Urich and Broadway and myself attempted to explore our 

 immediate vicinity, and we succeeded in making some interesting 

 captures, mine being a curious Epidendrum and a beautifully 

 marbled or mottled green and brown Tellandsia. Having care- 

 fully stowed away our treasures until our return, we moved 

 foward once more, and now entered an entirely new zone. The 

 thick silvery green moss now carpeted the damp and ] 

 soil, while other species covered the stems and branches around, 

 and hung about in festoons, like masses of black hair or seaweed. 

 The tall trees gave place to smaller ones, and these again to a 

 small bamboo and many beautiful Manicarias and Geonomas, 

 members of the palm family. The soil was yielding and very rich 

 being composed chiefly of peat and leafmould and the cold air 

 was heavily charged with moisture, which rendered everything 

 in it dripping and damp. Now and then we traversed small 

 forests of Geonomas ( Anari palm) and in the last of these I found 

 growing to the stem of one of them a Maxilla/ria with pure white 

 fragrant flowers, and on the moss which covered the ground 

 some large and beautiful blossoms of an Utricularia ( l\ montcma. ) 

 Damper and cooler grew the atmosphere as we proceeded, and 

 on creeping low under an arch, formed by the trunk of a fallen 

 tic:- and a mass of climbing plants, we emerged on to a 

 small patch of open ground near the base of a rather 

 weather beaten tree (for winds seem to he very boisterous en 

 Tucuche,) in what appeared to be cloud land. Here our guides 

 stopped, and informed us (hat we were on the top of Tucuche, 

 and that further we could not go. We seemed to he standing on 

 an island in the midsl of a mighty ocean, for whichever way we 

 looked we saw nothing beyond our immediate surroundings hut 



