THE PARAMO OF SANTA ISABEL 7 
frost-made mountains. Here even the 
vertical cliffs did not seem entirely with- 
out vegetation and as far as we could see 
with binoculars the brown sedges and the 
gray frailejons covered the rocks even up 
to the very edge of the snow. Beneath 
our feet the soil was springy and as we 
afterwards found, undermined with in- 
numerable small rivulets making their 
way to the stream below, which we could 
hear even at this distance as it dashed 
over the boulders 
and occasionally 
gleamed in the sun- 
light. All about us 
the strange mullein- 
like frazlejons, as the 
natives call them, 
(Espeletia — grandi- 
flora Humb. and 
Bonpl.), stood up 
on their pedestals, 
ten or even fifteen 
feet .1n height 
in sheltered spots; 
down among _ the 
sedges were many 
lesser plants similar 
to our North Ameri- 
can species: gen- 
tians, composites, a 
hoary lupine, a but- 
tercup, a yellow sor- 
rel, almost identical 
with those of the 
United States. 
Birds also, several 
of which proved to 
be new to science, 
were numerous, but 
all were of dull colors 
and reminded one in 
their habits of the 
open country birds 
of northern United 
States. A goldfinch 
hovered about the 
unicolor). 
frailejons, a gray flycatcher ran along the 
ground or mounted into the air much 
like our northern horned larks, an oven- 
bird flew up ahead of us resembling a 
meadowlark, a marsh wren scolded from 
the rank sedges, and almost from under 
our horses’ hoofs, one of the large Andean 
snipes sprang into the air with a charac- 
teristic bleat and went zigzaging away. 
On a small lake which we now had come 
to, barren except for a few alge, rode 
In the shadow of a frailejon — The nest is made entirely from the down 
of the frailejon leaves and belongs to a slate-colored finch (Pahrygilus 
On the paramo the leaves of all plants are either small and 
horny or heavily covered with down 
