24 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



Most of them were half tipsy, as they had been 

 preparing rum for the feast of their patron saint on 

 June 29, and it was with some difficulty we got 

 them embarked on the afternoon of the igth. The 

 actual distance from Chasuta to the mouth of the 

 Mayo river could be passed in three or four hours 

 were it not for the rapids, which are at about equal 

 distances apart. The second of these is difficult 

 to pass all the year round, the first is worst when 

 the river is rather full, and the last when it is 

 nearly dry. We found the first the most difficult 

 of approach and ascent, and the last the easiest, but 

 in all of them it is difficult and dangerous work for 

 the Indians who carry the cargo across the rocks. 

 The empty canoes are dragged up with stout 

 creepers, and though they fill with water they suffer 

 no injury. 



The falls resemble in some respects the first 

 fall of the Uaupes, but with less water and on 

 a rather smaller scale, while the whirlpools below 

 are much less dangerous. The scenery of the 

 falls of the Huallaga is, however, far more pic- 

 turesque, from the steep and lofty mountains 

 which rise on each side of the river, and the dense 

 tapestry of mosses on the moist rocks and inundated 

 branches at the very edge of the water. There is 

 much similarity in the shrubs and trees growing 

 about both, though the species are, I believe, 

 entirely different, and the palm of botanical novelty 

 must perhaps be given to the Uaupes. The most 

 striking difference is perhaps the vast abundance of 

 Neckera disticka (or an allied species), forming a 

 dense beard to branches of trees hanging into the 

 water, as Hydropogon does on the Upper Rio 



