RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 85 



place to be reached, has been sought to be obtained 

 by following a ridge separating two streams. The 

 summit attained, another similar one has been 

 picked out and reached in a similar manner, often 

 no doubt with much trouble, and after considerable 

 entanglement in the valleys. Thus the roads here, 

 like the first-made roads in all parts of the world, 

 go straight over the tops of hills, instead of winding 

 around their base. The dense forest makes the 

 finding of a way among hills infinitely more difficult 

 when no compass is used, and though it would seem 

 more feasible to have sought out a passage along 

 the watercourses, a very little practice shows the 

 impossibility of this. Besides that the vegetation 

 is much ranker .near water, the course of the streams 

 -not merely their bed, but the whole of the narrow 

 valley in which they run is so obstructed by large 

 masses of rock and stones as to be all but impass- 

 able, and completely so when the valley narrows to 

 a gorge with perpendicular sides which merely 

 admits the passage of the stream in an alternation 

 ot cascades and deep still pools. To avoid a 

 pongo as these gorges are called one must 

 climb a mountain-side and then go down again, and 

 perhaps steep cliffs render descent impossible for a 

 long distance. Hence it may be seen how, 

 seeking out the sharp ridge of a mountain, when not 

 too steep, we really avoid invincible obstructions, 

 although we have to ascend and descend great 

 heights. It is true that a little previous survr\ 

 and a little good engineering would smooth down 

 most of the difficulties that offer themselves, and 

 have no doubt that good winding mule-road.* 

 slight inclination, might !>< made in any part i 



