ASCENT TO THE GLACIERS. 141 



a distance of a few feet or inches above the surface like huge vines, send- 

 ing upward such a profusion of little short, leafy branches as rendered it 

 impossible to see for more than a few inches beneath. It was absolutely 

 impossible to proceed by walking on the ground, so that for a distance of 

 a mile or more I literally walked along over the tops of the woods, until 

 I reached the interior of the main forest, where the trees were erect and 

 unobstructed, I then made rapid progress down the heavily wooded slope 

 to camp. ' I found on the upper and lower outskirts of all these beech 

 forests very similar conditions to those just described, and I believe it 

 due, to some extent at least, to the deep snows that must accumulate 

 here in winter, by which the young trees are broken and bent down with 

 the weight of snow from year to year and thus prevented from accom- 

 plishing a natural growth. 



The little stream on which we were camped flowed for several miles 

 below us through a rather deep and picturesque mountain canon, before 

 entering the main valley of Mayer River. This was a favorite resort for 

 several birds not common elsewhere. In one particularly rocky defile, 

 where the stream went meandering down among great numbers of huge 

 bowlders, I secured a specimen of Nycticorax cyaiiocepJiahis, a night heron 

 with two delicate, pure white, thread-like plumes on the occiput, some six 

 inches in length. On another occasion I came upon a small flock of chest- 

 nut colored geese, ChloepJiaga poliocepJiala, feeding in an old deserted 

 channel of the stream. From among these I secured our only specimen 

 of this goose. 



Having decided not to proceed farther into the Andes with our cart, on 

 March i, we made all secure about camp and, taking sufficient bedding 

 and provisions, set out with improvised pack saddles on an expedition to 

 the glaciers beyond Mayer River. We were not long in selecting and 

 packing the few necessary articles with which we could not dispense and 

 were soon on our way. Having converted our cart-horses into pack ani- 

 mals, and mounted on our saddle-horses, we had a small but exceedingly 

 mobile and efficient pack train quite sufficient for our needs. We made 

 our way through the forests along the stream on which we were camped, 

 until we came to the main branch of Mayer River, at a point a little dis- 

 tance above where the first of the rivers flowing from the glaciers in Mayer 

 Basin emptied into that stream. At this place the bed of the river is per- 

 haps five hundred yards in width, but with the stage of water then in the 



