Chap. II. DK. WEDDELL'S RESEARCHES. 41 



also many trees of C. micrantha on the banks of the Coroico, 

 a species of ehinchona, the peculiarity of which is its fondness 

 for the bottoms of valleys and banks of rivers, while most of 

 the others prefer elevated ridges or slopes of the moimtains. 

 With it were growing trees of the beautiful Casearilla magni- 

 folia, an allied genus with deliciously fragrant flowers. 



The cascarilleros of Bolivia lead a hard and dangerous life. 

 They only value the C. Calisaya, the other species being for 

 them carlma-carlma, a name given to all the inferior kinds. 

 Those who carry the bark on their shoulders from the interior 

 of the forests receive fifteen dollars for eveiy quintal, and 

 they also have to carry all their provisions and covering for 

 the night. If by any accident they are lost, or their provi- 

 sions are destroyed, they die of hunger. Dr. Weddell, on 

 one occasion, while ascending the Coroico, landed with the 

 intention of passing the night on a beach well shaded by 

 trees. Here he found the hut of a eascarillero, and near it a 

 man stretched out on the ground in the agonies of death. He 

 was nearly naked, and covered wth myriads of insects, whose 

 stings had hastened his end. His face w^as so swollen as to be 

 wholly unrecognisable, and his limbs were in a frightful state. 

 On the leaves which formed the roof of the hut were the re- 

 mains of this unfortunate man's clothes, a straw hat and some 

 rags, "with a knife, and an earthen pot containing the remains 

 of his last meal, a little maize, and two or three ckuhus. Such 

 is the end to which their hazardous occupation exposes the 

 bark-collectors — death in the midst of the forests, far from 

 all friends— a death without help, and without consolation. 



Dr. Weddell returned to La Paz by ascendmg the Coroico, 

 and the results of his second visit to the ehinchona forests 

 appeared in an entertaining book of travels.^ To this able 



- Voyage dans le Norcl de Bolivie, et \ cation of a work on tlie plants of the 

 dans les partes voisines de Pe'rou, par j more elevated parts of the Andes, en- 

 H. A. Weddell. Paris, 1853. Dr. titled Chloris Andina. 

 Weddell Ls now engaged in the publi- 



