CHAP, x 



40 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



leagues from Tarapoto begin to rise the abrupt 

 ridges of Guayrapurima (" where the wind blows "), 

 which are crossed to reach Chasuta. 



More to the north is a rather lower ridge whose 

 top, bare of trees, gives to it the name of Cerro- 

 pelado (the bald hill). Over this passes the track 

 leading to a noted fishing stream called Tiracu, 

 whose sources are near those of the Aguashiyacu 

 in the high mountains N.E. of Tarapoto. From 

 this mountain come more storms than from any 

 other quarter. A long day of painful ascents 

 and descents brings fishermen to Tiracu, where 

 they sometimes remain a week, exposed to almost 

 daily rain and barely sheltered at night in a rude 

 rancho of palm-leaves. Some way lower down the 

 Tiracu are cliffs of white salt. The inhabitants of 

 Lamas make frequent visits there, and when I 

 visit the Guayrapurima mountain I never fail to 

 encounter one or more troops of them. 



[The accompanying view of Tarapoto from the 

 southern entrance shows the straggling suburbs 

 backed on the north-east by the grand mountain of 

 Guayrapurima, to which Spruce made many excur- 

 sions. The conical peak on the left is probably the 

 same as that shown in another drawing (at p. 94) 

 as the singular Cerro Pelado when seen from a 

 different point of view, perhaps from the village of 

 Morales.] 



The sound of the waters of the Shillicaio generally 

 reaches my ears in a soft murmur, often mingled 

 with the less musical sounds of a cane-mill on 

 its opposite margin ; the squeaking of the cane- 

 crushers ; the shouts of the men who goad along 

 the poor oxen or mules in their painful round ; 



