162 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



From Rio Verde to Bafios, a distance of some 

 15 English miles, the road runs near the Pastasa, 

 but only in two places, in each for near a mile, 

 along the actual beach ; in other parts it passes 

 over elevated pampas, or makes detours over hills 

 to avoid steep cliffs, especially at the cataract of 

 Agoyan. For the first hour from Rio Verde we 

 were on elevated, nearly level ground, called 

 Ouillu-turu or yellow mud. As to the mud, well 

 does it deserve to be signalised by such a name, 

 though the actual tint is as often black as yellow. 

 In no part of the Montana had we harder toil in 

 tramping through the mud than here ; in other 

 respects the road was a tolerably good mule-track, 

 not very wide, but kept clear of rubbish ; and after 

 passing Quillu-tiiru it was mostly sound and often 

 gravelly. At nearly two hours from Rio Verde we 

 came to a hacienda on a beach by the Pastasa, 

 called the Playa de Antombos, where the mistress, 

 a very hospitable lady, must needs have us enter 

 and take some refreshment. Here we learnt that 

 the late rains had been equally heavy in the Sierra, 

 and that on the preceding day the Pastasa had 

 swollen so much as to break the bridge of Agoyan, 

 though this is 40 feet above the river at low water. 

 She had yesterday sent a lad to the town with 

 aguardiente and counselled us to await his return, 

 as if he did not come it was a sign that the bridge 

 was impassable. Here was another delay, and it 

 seemed as if my progress must be arrested by 

 swollen rivers up to the very last day, as it had 

 been almost from the first. The lad did not 

 arrive until near evening, all too late for us to start 

 again for Bafios, although he reported that the 



