304 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



notion is that I had better pass the winter at Piura, 

 which is just within the rainless region on the coast 

 of Peru. 



REPORT (continued] 



The raft was composed of twelve trunks of raft- 

 wood, 63 to 66 feet long, and about a foot in 

 diameter, ranged longitudinally, so as to occupy a 

 width of 15 feet, and kept in their places by five 

 shorter pieces tied transversely and widely apart, 

 extending nearly to the root end of the trunks, but 

 leaving a considerable space free towards their 

 point, for the convenience of working the raft. 

 The five cross pieces were covered with bamboo 

 planking, so as to form a floor 36 feet long by 

 iCHj- feet broad, which was fenced round with rails 

 to a height of 3 feet, and the whole roofed over 

 and thatched with leaves of Maranta Vijao. For 

 carrying cacao, the fence has to be lined with 

 bamboo boards, so as to form, with the flooring, a 

 sort of large bin. The rope used in binding to- 

 gether the constituent parts of the raft was the 

 twining stem of a Bignonia, nearly terete, but 

 marked by four raised lines, overlying four deep 

 grooves in the substance of the stem, and alter- 

 nating with four shallower grooves. When the 

 stem is twisted, to enable it to be tied, it splits 

 lengthwise along those grooves into eight strips, 

 which, however, still pull together, and offer very 

 great resistance to transverse fracture. 1 



1 I have long known that the strongest of all lianas are Bignonias, and I 

 have many times trusted my life and goods to their strength. In the malos 

 pasos of the Huallaga, canoes are dragged up the most dangerous places by 

 means of from one to four stems of Bignonia, according to the size of the 



