EXPLORING A SPUR OF THE ANDES ail 
We camped this night at 11,350 feet up. The 
men eagerly cut down clumps of bromelias 
hoping to obtain water, but all that the leaves 
contained were a few drops of a liquid mud, 
utterly unfit for use. Although we traveled 
steadily for ten hours, I doubt if we covered 
more than three miles. 
A few hours after starting on the morning 
of January 23, we emerged suddenly from the 
dark forest. Instead of the tall, overburdened 
trees, there were extensive areas of bushes, 
evergreens, stunted pines, and plants with 
thick, round rubbery leaves, interspersed 
with clumps of tall rank ferns. Beyond 
stretched the bleak, wind-swept surface of 
the Garam. 
The Paramillo region is composed of a series 
of sharply inclined peaks, the highest of which 
attains an elevation of thirteen thousand feet, 
interspersed with ravines and deep fissures. 
The surface consists mainly of dark sandstone 
which in many places has been shattered so 
that a thin litter of the particles covers the 
fundamental rock. Occasionally a thin vein 
of white quartz crops out, especially where, 
as often occurs, the strata stand in a perpen- 
dicular position. Water is scarce. We dis- 
covered but one *small, { trickling brooklet; 
but at the bottom of one of the crevices 
several potholes were found, each containing 
several hundred gallons. 
At night the temperature fell to 28°, and ice 
formed in our pails half an inch thick; in 
the morning the ground was white with frost. 
The vegetation is of a typical paramo char- 
acter, consisting of low clumps of frailejones, 
blueberry bushes and tough grass. In the 
ravines grow thick bushes and stunted trees, 
all heavily moss-covered. 
Birds were extremely scarce and, strange 
to say, exceedingly wary. The typical slaty 
finch of Santa Isabel and two species of 
honey creepers were by far the commonest, 
followed by a small, slaty tapacolo. Then 
there were white-throated hummers and 
flycatchers. The finches (including gold- 
finches), honey creepers, tapacolos, cotingas 
and flyeatchers, seem to belong strictly to the 
paramo; the hummers, towhees and tanagers 
it seems come only from the forests below. 
It is difficult to guess just where this typical 
paramo bird fauna originated. On all sides 
excepting a break toward the west, Paramillo 
is surrounded by ridges, some reaching an 
elevation of 12,000 feet, the tops of which 
are covered with dense forest, so that it 
stands like a mountainous brown island amid 
the sea of green. 
