02 THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1896. 
THE AQUARIUM. 
A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE. 
$1.00a Year. Single Oopies, 25 cts, Each. 
Advertising Rates on Application. 
HUGO MULERTT, F.I.R.S.A., 
Editor and Publisher, 
173 Nostrand Av., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
ORCHID COLLECTING IN NEW 
GRENADA. 
«* Jose, this night you have to sleep 
here in the house, as to-morrow we 
shall go out for a fortnight.” 
Jose, to whom this order was given, 
is my ‘‘ boy,” twenty-four years old, 
married, and a pure Indian. He is a 
great thief, and robs and cheats me 
whenever he can; indeed, people who 
know him well warned me not to let 
him see that I carry any large sum of 
money about with me. He was a 
soldier for six and a half years, knows 
every path in the environs, and is 
always willing to do as I order himn— 
qualities which, after six weeks spent 
in my service, I have discovered that 
he alone possesses among the four 
“‘boys” I had employed. Jose, to 
whom I give six reals (two shillings 
six pence) per day, and boarding, asks 
me for an advance of five dollars, for 
his wife. 
The mule is carefully fed and re- 
ceives a double portion of bran with 
syrup, likewise corn and grass ad (ibi- 
tum ; the saddle and harness are exam- 
ined, and the bridle sent to the saddler 
for a small repair. All the necessary 
objects for traveling are set apart, to 
be fixed on the saddle, or put in the 
four saddle pockets, as waterproof 
hayeton (a heavy woolen cover envel- 
oped in a goatskin), nuana, a bottle of 
brandy, cigars, matches, knife, thread, 
candle, cholera drops, opium, sticking 
plaster, lint, balsam, odontalgia, qui- 
nine in pills and powder, purgatives, 
emetics, alkali, liniment, lancet and 
pincers, my medicine chest, thermo- 
meter, and a drinking cup made of the 
shell of a cocoanut. In a wicker basket 
two and a half feet high and one and a 
half feet wide, which is to contain the 
plants gathered, and which the boy 
carries on his back, I put fifteen pounds 
of dry meat, at one shilling per pound, 
five pounds of bread, some cocoa, rice, 
peas, biscuits, extract of meat, two 
wooden spoons and a towel. I myself 
am provided with great waterproof 
boots, large spurs, a twelve-meter re- 
volver in my belt, and a hatchet, and 
am dressed in warm clothes. We start 
at half-past four in the morning, in 
the brightest moonshine, after taking 
coffee, bread and eggs. 
The journey commences step by step, 
and half an hour after, we go on slower 
still—we begin to mount. The road 
is intersected by two ridges, each two 
leagues up and one league down, and 
as, on the average, in the Cordillera 
one hour and a half is spent in travers- 
ing a league, we arrived in Mutiscua at 
half-past ten, just in time for breakfast, 
after having stopped twice on the road 
to wet our throats. A six-penny worth 
of grass is purchased for the mule, and 
one pound of meat and a little choco- 
late is handed to a woman who pre- 
paresit for us. At midday we continued 
our journey, and an hour afterward the 
wind began to blow more and more, 
becoming colder and colder, and we 
enter into the Paramos—mountainous 
districts. 
Up to this point the way was in 
pure rock, four to six feet wide, un- 
even, rough and stony, with incessant 
