THE FORESTS OF ALAUSI 241 



got in former years. We started on horseback, 

 and a mule carried our necessaries. My counsel 

 was to leave the horses, but Bermeo felt sure I 

 should not be able to perform the distance on foot ; 

 we had gone, however, a very short way when we 

 found it necessary to cut our way through the 

 forest, for the track had got overgrown in two 

 years that no one had passed along it ; nor was 

 it possible without wasting a good deal of time to 

 open a passage overhead so that a man might pass 

 mounted ; I therefore preferred going on foot most 

 of the way. We reached the banks of the Puma- 

 cocha at an early hour of the afternoon, but the 

 ford which Bermeo had passed in former years had 

 been destroyed by the falling of a cliff, and in its 

 place we found a deep whirlpool ; so with the drift- 

 wood along the banks we set to work to make a 

 bridge where the river was narrowed between two 

 rocks, and when completed carried across it our 

 baggage, saddles, etc. Then, after a long search, 

 we found a place where we could swim the horses 

 over, and by rolling clown a good deal of earth and 

 stones we made a way for them to ascend on the 

 other side. Once across, we selected a site for 

 our hut among Vegetable-ivory palms, and thatched 

 the hut with fronds of the same. Close by were 

 the remains of a platanal, showing that the spot 

 had formerly been inhabited, and fortunately still 

 bearing a sufficient number of plantains to cook 

 along with our salt meat during the two days we 

 calculated on remaining there. Our horses were 

 taken to the top of a neighbouring hill, where there 

 was a bed of one of those large succulent Panicums 

 called Gamalote, which afford a very nutritious 

 VOL. ii R 



