46 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



of such dimensions that London might be set down 

 in it entire, and so completely encircled by moun- 

 tains as to form a vast natural amphitheatre. It is 

 about 1500 feet above the sea, while the encircling 

 ridges are 2000 or 3000 feet above the plain, and 

 some of the peaks one or two thousand feet more. 



The town dates only from some seventy years 

 back, yet according to a census made since my 

 arrival it numbers nearly 12,000 souls, including 

 two small hamlets which form a kind of suburb to 

 it. The dominion of the Incas does not seem to 

 have extended much to the eastward of the central 

 ridge of the Andes, and the Spaniards found this 

 part of the montana occupied by independent 

 Indian tribes, of which considerable remnants still 

 exist, both pure and mixed. The first town estab- 

 lished by the conquerors was Lamas, which stands 

 on the top of a curious conical hill five leagues 

 (seventeen miles) westward of Tarapoto and 1500 feet 

 above the pampa. From my house I can, with the 

 telescope, distinctly see the white houses glistening 

 in the morning sun. I have also visited it, and 

 may have something to tell you of it in a future 

 letter. It numbers now only from 6000 to 7000 

 inhabitants, but Tarapoto and several villages on the 

 Mayo and Cumbasa rivers are all colonies of Lamas. 

 Moyobamba, more to the westward, among the 

 mountains, has about 20,000 inhabitants ; it is the 

 great centre of the manufacture of those beautiful 

 straw hats sold extensively in Brazil under the 

 name of " Chapeos de Chile," and of which the 

 finest sell for an ounce of gold, or even more. 

 They are made from the same plant as the Panama 

 hats. All these places are inhabited by the same 



