1 64 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



the first habitation of civilised men on June 29, 

 the journey up to that point had lasted just 100 

 days. 



[As a conclusion to this chapter it will be well 

 to give here the short account of the Forest ot 

 Canelos geographical, historical, and botanical- 

 contained in the Precis d'un Voyage, which is of 

 much general interest, as it is now, probably, in 

 exactly the same condition as when Spruce tra- 

 versed it, if not, from the point of view of the 

 traveller, even worse. The translation follows the 

 original in being written in the third person.] 



The Montana de Canelos has not any fixed 

 limits. It extends between the parallels of i and 

 2 S. latitude, and the meridians of 77 to 78^ 

 west of London, exceeding these limits in a few 

 places. Within this space are included the sources 

 of several tributaries of the Pastasa and the Napo, 

 and a part of the upper course of these rivers them- 

 selves. It is bounded on the west by the volcanoes 

 Cotopaxi, Llanganati, and Tunguragua ; and on 

 the east it slopes imperceptibly down to the plain 

 of the Amazon, towards the middle of the course 

 of the Bombonasa. 1 It will be understood that, 

 with the exception of the little plantations made 

 by the Indians, the whole of this district is primeval 

 forest. It was in this forest of Canelos and on the 

 banks of the Curaray and the Napo, that Gonzalo 

 Pizarro wandered for more than two years, search- 

 ing for cities as rich as those of Peru, which he 

 imagined must exist there ; hoping besides to dis- 

 cover that great river, which, uniting all the rivers 

 of the Cordillera, ran from west to east, to empty 



1 Spruce spells this word either with or without the " m.' ! 



