152 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



anxiously scrutinised all the trees and the ground 

 beneath them, in the hope of meeting some edible 

 fruit ; but it was not the proper season, and I could 

 only find a single tree of a Miconia (Melastomacese) 

 about 20 feet high, with small insipid black berries 

 about the size of swan-shot. This I decided to cut 

 down the following day, should we be unable to get 

 away, and boil up the berries with about a handful 

 of sugar which I had still left. Neither I with my 

 gun nor the Indians with their blowing-canes could 

 meet a single living thing save toads. 



At about four in the afternoon the sun shone out 

 among the clouds, and though the river fell not, 

 there seemed some chance of its abating before 

 morning ; so, that all might be in readiness for this 

 desirable contingency, I set the Indians to work to 

 get out the bamboos and lianas required for the 

 bridges. About a quarter of a mile back from our 

 ranchos, and on moist rising ground, are large beds 

 of bamboos affording abundant materials for bridging 

 the Topo. The old stems are so inwoven to one 

 another and to adjacent trees, by means of their 

 arched thorny branches, that, though cut off below, 

 it is impossible to get them down. On this account, 

 stems of a year's growth are chosen ; these are as 

 tall as the older ones, but have no branches, only 

 'spiniform pungent branch-buds at each joint, which 

 must be lopped off, or they would wound the hands 

 and feet. About 40 feet of the stems is available 

 for the bridges ; above this height they are generally 

 so much thinner as to be easily broken off. When 

 cut down and trimmed, each man drags one to the 

 river's brink, which is no easy task over ground 

 where there are so many obstructions ; and in the 



