CHAP. XVI 



RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 43 



the grunting of pigs, which chew the crushed 

 canes as they are thrown out ; and very often the 

 laughter and playful screams of boys and girls 

 bathing in the stream. But when heavy rain falls 

 on the hills to the northward, the swollen stream 

 comes rushing down with a roar which drowns 

 every other sound, bearing along with it logs and 

 trunks of trees, and sometimes tearing loose from 

 its banks a large mass of rock which falls with a 

 thundering crash. At such times all communica- 

 tion is suspended between the town and the 

 village. The poor people who are returning from 

 their farms on the opposite side, with their load 

 of plantains or other vegetables, have then to wait 

 perhaps a couple of hours shivering on the bank 

 ere they can cross. Their natural apathy prevents 

 the people from obviating this inconvenience by- 

 throwing a bridge across the narrow stream, which 

 would be easily done, as the channel is in many 

 places scarcely ten yards across, and the banks are 

 so high that the adjacent ground is never inundated 

 by the highest Hoods, which always subside a few- 

 hours after the rain ceases. A bridge was indeed 

 commenced in 1856, but the foundations were 

 ill-laid that the first flood swept them away. 



At some seasons, especially during the rains 

 scarcely any colour but green, of various 

 can be discerned in the landscape, save that 'in the 

 morning the lower part of the course of the 

 and Cumbasa are marked by a line of hovering 

 mist, and that a tall column of grey 

 be seen rising in the forest from some ne\ 

 clearing; but a few sunny days after rain < 

 the forest here and then- with the (lowers 



