98 ABOUT ORCHIDS. 
After this we reached town in safety. So after 
coming home we found, on packing up, that we 
had only about goo plants, that is, Cattleya Law- 
venceana, of which about one-third good, one-third 
medium, and one-third poor quality. This trip 
took us about three and a half months, and cost 
over 2500 dollars. Besides, I having poisoned my 
leg on a rotten stump which I run up in my foot, 
lay for four months suffering terrible pain. 
You will, of course, see from this that orchid- 
hunting is no pleasure, as you of course know, but 
what I want to point out to you is that Cattleya 
Lawrenceana is very rare in the interior now. 
The river expenses fearfully high, in fact, un- 
reasonably high, on account of the gold-digging. 
Labourers getting 64 c. to $1.00 per day, and all 
found. No Indians to be got, and those that you 
can get at ridiculous prices, and getting them, too, 
by working on places where they build and thatch 
houses and clear the ground from underbush, and 
as huntsmen for gold-diggers. Even if Mr. Kromer 
had succeeded to get 3000 or 4000 fine Cattleya 
Lawrenceana, it would have been of no value to us, 
as we could not have got anybody to carry them 
to the river where a boat could reach. Besides 
this, I also must tell you that there is a license to 
be paid out here if you want to collect orchids, 
