THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1896. 73 
windings ; sometimes rising steeply on 
both sides, sometimes rising on one 
side, with afrightful abyss on the other. 
Protruding blocks of rocks and dis- 
rooted trees above, often threaten the 
rider on these ways, which become 
still more disagreeable when one meets 
a train of mules loaded with boxes, 
bales, etc. Several times I got such 
knocks on the knee-cap, that I was 
almost’ ready to fall down from my 
mule. On such roads boxes are quite 
useless. 
It is just on such routes as these that 
goods of all kinds have to suffer, and 
that my darling plants are injured so 
much, if not altogether spoiled. Col- 
lisions with mules bearing on their 
sides packages of one and a half quin- 
tals each, which sometimes, as in the 
case of tobacco boxes, empty bags, etc., 
are very voluminous, are on such 
roads inevitable, the more so, as from 
five to six beasts are driven by one 
man, and these caravans consist very 
often of from thirty to forty mules, 
As the pace of loaded mules is a 
quick one, the shock is a very rude 
one. There is no other road in this 
direction, and the communication be- 
tween and Bucaramauga is very 
animated. 
The only way to diminish the danger 
is to travel as quickly as possible, and 
to avoid the approach to towns on 
market days. Another way of account- 
ing for the frequent losses in damage- 
able cargoes is to be found in the mode 
of fastening them to the sides of the 
mules ; for, naturally, in order to re- 
sist the often-repeated shocks against 
other mules with baggage, which they 
meet on their way, or trees and rocks 
that obstruct the road, these packages 
must be fastened very closely, and the 
ropes make deep grooves in their sides. 
We continue our journey. Now we 
get on a little quicker, because of the 
cold and the road being level, and fur- 
ther because the next cottage is some 
three leagues distant. There we arrive 
at four o’clock, just when mist and 
damp begin to cover everything. 
Donna Maria, the housemother, is a 
chuffy, unfriendly old woman ; but as 
I always show her little attentions, 
which take the form of a present, 
sometimes of a shabby image of a 
saint, another time of a ribbon for her 
daughter, she offers me the best place 
near the big three stones (the fireplace) 
in the kitchen, which is safely closed, 
and where the smoke of the tremen- 
dous fire intended for cooking, warm- 
ing and lighting all at once, makes the 
eyes weep The kitchen is at the same 
time saloon and dormitory for the most 
favored guests ; and for that reason | 
receive, after the dinner (off my provi- 
sions), a cow skin and the privilege of 
choosing the best place in the kitchen. 
The amiability of the householder 
reaches its height when two sheep 
skins are opened for me—the saddle- 
pad supplies a pillow, and at eight 
o’clock we go to rest. Ten minutes 
afterwards my boy at my side snores so 
loudly that I am obliged to give him a 
poke in the ribs. For me there is no 
thinking of sleep, on account of the 
hundreds of fleas, and so I have suffi- 
cient time to make my plans for the 
next day, to think about orchids and a 
thousand other things, including the 
paying orders floating between London 
and 
Awaiting anxiously the approach of 
day, my boy receives a second poke. 
He awakes and asks me whether it is 
time to saddle the mule. Not yet ; it 
is midnight. Then I am startled by 
the crowing of a cock, at some distance 
