RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 47 



mixed (and I must say very degenerate) race, who 

 have nothing about them of the European but 

 a whitish skin ; their ideas, modes of life, and 

 language being still entirely Indian. 



Tarapoto is regularly built, and covers a good 

 deal of ground, as the houses mostly stand in 

 gardens. . . . They are all of a single story with 

 thick walls of adobes and palm-thatch roofs. 



The climate is much drier than that of the 

 Amazon, but this depends entirely on the peculiar 

 position of the town, for while heavy rains are 

 frequent on the hills, they are very rare at Tara- 

 poto, and we see and hear almost every day violent 

 thunderstorms skirting the pampa, but only occa- 

 sionally giving us a slight taste. Fogs, however, 

 are frequent in the mornings, and no doubt make 

 up for the deficiency of the rains. 



As to temperature, I have once had the pleasure 

 of seeing the thermometer at Tarapoto down to 6f 

 at daybreak. The sensation of cold was so great 

 that had I been in England I should have looked 

 to see the mist deposited on the trees in the shape 

 of hoar-frost. More commonly at that time of day 

 the thermometer marks from 72 to 75. At two 

 in the afternoon it gets up to 84 to 87, and in my 

 house to 95 to 98- -on one occasion to 100 . 

 On the hills it is much cooler, and even here we 

 have generally a strong northerly breeze from 

 10 A.M. to sunset, which tempers the heat. In 

 the months of November and December, I spent 

 three weeks on the Cerro de Campana, at three 

 days' journey to the west of this, and two d.. 

 from Moyobamba. Here I got nearly 4000 feet 

 higher than the Pampa of Tarapoto, and the cold 



