ORCHIDS 20J 



placed crosswise on the track. The men sang lustily all 

 the time, but this did not appear to aid them to any great 

 extent in overcoming the difficulties of the first part 

 of the portage, which is the steepest. By midday, when 

 they came for breakfast, they had covered not more 

 than 200 yards. Day after day the men toiled with 

 the boats, Pancho, the cook, taking their sancocho to 

 them in a large tin, so that they would not have to 

 waste time by coming down to the camp in the middle of 

 the day to eat, I did not accompany them but stayed in 

 camp, suffering from fever almost every alternate day. 

 Pedro Hospedales shot a good many birds, some of which 

 had not been obtained in the collections made at La 

 Prision and on the Nichare, and Chichi killed a male 

 and female cock-of-the-rock ^ both in beautiful plumage. 

 Hawks were plentiful, and we secured many fine speci- 

 mens. Attracted by the refuse from Pancho's kitchen 

 they would come quite close to the camp, where they 

 generally met with a violent end. 



My rambles were limited to the foot of the hills that 

 surround the pool and end in places in a perfect jumble 

 of rocks. Many of these rocks supported magnificent 

 masses of Cyrtopodmm Andersonii and Epidendrum elon- 

 gatum. Both orchids were in full bloom at the time of 

 our visit, so were many plants of Gattleya superba, which 

 is exceedingly abundant on the stunted moss-covered trees 

 on the rocky islands and banks of the Caura. Our camp 

 was in consequence always gay with flowers brought in 

 by Pedro and Chichi, who were aware of my passion for 

 orchids. Many lizards, several different kinds of insects, 

 and a queer little frog inhabit the fissures of the rocks. 

 These queer little frogs were particularly interesting to 



' Rupicola crocea. 



