230 THE HUARI-HUARI. Chap. XIIL 



the skirts of the mountains, at a considerable height, in the 

 region of the pajonales. No gullies or large cascades cut up 

 the face of these mountains, which were entirely exposed 

 to the full glare of the sun, and here, though there was a 

 profusion of purple Melastomacese in some of the shallow in- 

 dentations, there were no chinchonoe. Towards evening we 

 came to a lofty spur of the mountain, called Estanqui, at a 

 great height above the ravine, whence there was a most 

 extensive view. To the left was the valley of Sandia, 

 with little coca-farms nestling in all the sheltered gullies ; 

 and I could just make out the boys and girls far far below, 

 like specks, busy with the coca-leaves in the drpng-yards. 

 In front there was a distant view of the hills in the direction 

 of San Juan del Oro, covered with virgin forest ; while at our 

 feet, and a thousand feet below us, was the confluence of the 

 rivers Sandia, Llaypuni, and Huari-huari, which unite to 

 form the great river Ynambari. 



It was my intention, after marking doAvn all the eligible 

 plants of the shrubby Calisaya, to be taken up on our return, 

 to make for the forest-covered valley of Tambopata, which 

 is full of chinchona-trees ; and I therefore left the ravine 

 of the Sandia river at this point, and, by a rapid descent, 

 went down from the grassy uplands to a region of tropical 

 forest, full of palms and tree-ferns. We tlius reached the 

 banks of the Huari-huari. This river flows through a deep 

 and very narrow ravine, lined with forest, for about 500 feet, 

 above which rise grassy mountains to an immense height. 

 Though only 30 feet across, and confined by dark polished 

 rocks, the Huari-huari is very deep, and decidedly a more 

 important stream than the Sandia, at their junction. 



We established ourselves under a rock, where there was 

 no room to pitch the tent, and thus our first night of camping 

 out commenced, for previously we had slept in the road-side 

 tambos. The Indians carried little earthen pots for cooking, 



