Chap. XIII.- ALPINE VEGETATION. 217 



in the cascarilla trade ; tiiid that lie was now making a 

 clearing in the forests of Caravaya, for the purjjose of 

 growing sugar-cane. He talked about M. Hasskarl, the 

 Dutch agent, who was employed to obtain chinchona-plants 

 in 1854, under his assumed name of MUller ; said that he 

 employed an agent named Clemente Henriquez to collect 

 the plants ; and vowed that if he, or any one else, over again 

 attempted to take cascarilla (chinchona) plants out of the 

 country, he would stir up tlie people to seize them and cut 

 then- feet off. There was evidently some allusion to myself 

 in liis bluster ; and I suspected, what afterwards proved to 

 be the case, that Martel had, by some means, got information 

 respecting the objects of my jom-ney, and was desirous of 

 thwarting them. I liad always carefully avoided any mention 

 of the subject since leaving Ai-equipa. Martel said he was 

 going to buy gold-dust at Poti, so I soon got rid of him ; 

 and, passing an alpine lake, full of water-fowl, we began the 

 descent into the golden valleys of Caravaya. 



On the left a black cKff, perpendicular, and fully 2000 feet 

 high, formed one side of the descent, and the space on its 

 inner side was occupied by a small glacier, the only one I 

 have ever seen in the Andes ; whence descends, in a long 

 waterfall, the source of the little river Huaccuyo, which 

 dashes down the ravine. For the first thousand feet the 

 vegetation continues to be of a lowly alpine character, con- 

 sisting of coarse grass and flowering herbs, chiefly Compositce, 

 of which there were several /Setiecios, generally with yeUow 

 flowers, a gentian with violet-coloured flowers, a Bartsia with 

 a yellow flower, a little Plantago, and a Ranuneulus. As we 

 continued the descent, the scenery increased in magnificence. 

 The polished surfaces of the perpendicular cliffs ghttered 

 here and there with foaming torrents, some like thin lines 

 of thread, others broader and breaking over rocks, others 

 seeming to burst out of the fleecy clouds; while jagged 



