CANELOS TO BANGS 143 



absolutely refused to stir a step further unless I 

 would lighten my cargoes. They had received 

 their pay beforehand and I was therefore com- 

 pletely in their hands. I had brought from Tara- 

 poto a boxful of drying paper, and on our way up 

 the rivers I had dried a sprig or two of everything 

 accessible, and especially of Cryptogami, by placing 

 them in paper under my mattress in the canoe. 

 At Puca-yacu, fearful of increasing the weight of my 

 cargoes, I limited my collections to mosses. The 

 only way of lightening my cargoes was to throw 

 away all the paper not occupied by plants, and then 

 divide the remainder of the effects nearly equally 

 among my five boxes. This I did with a heavy 

 heart for I knew I should have much difficulty in 

 replacing the paper when I got out into the Sierra. 

 The savages made a bonfire of my precious drying- 

 paper and danced round it ! 



Sunday the 21.57'.- -The sun shone out in the 

 morning, and we were gratified by the day holding 

 out dry and hot. We waited, however, till the 

 following morning to give time for the forest to dry 

 a little. Early on the 22nd we resumed our 

 journey. I had gathered small quantities of many 

 interesting mosses in the Jibaria, chiefly on logs 

 in the platanal by the convent, and on trees in the 

 forest by the Piiyu ; of these I made small bundles, 

 putting alternate layers of Mosses and Hepaticae so 

 that there might be no confusion of fallen lids and 

 calyptras, and dried them in the sun and by the fire. 

 The same plan I followed through the remainder 

 of the journey, depositing such mosses as I could 

 snatch from the branches in a bag hung at my side, 

 when we halted for the night tying them up in 



