246 CLIMATE AND SEASONS. Chap. XV. 



June.— A dry hot month. Much sun and little rain. Coca-harvest early 

 in the month. Oranges and paccays ripen. Cool nights, but a fierce heat 

 during the day. 



ji,ly._The hottest and driest month, but with cool nights. Very few 

 showers. Time for sowing gourds, pumpkins, and water-melons. 



August. — Generally dry. Trees begin to bud. A month for planting. 



September. — Eains begin. Time for blossoming of many trees. Coca- 

 harvest. 



October. — Eains increasing. Maize-harvest, and time for the "sembra 

 grande," or great sowing of maize. 



November. — Heavy rains. A coca-harvest. 



December. — Heavy rains. Pumpkins ripen. 



The inhabitants of the valley of Tambopata consist of 

 Gironda, his two little boys, one Victorio Jovi, Villalba, and 

 the cascarillero named Martinez. Another cascarillero, named 

 Ximenes, has lately died. They live with their families at a 

 place called Huaccay-churu, about half a mile up the Llami- 

 llami river, where there are a few huts, and a small clearing. 

 Gironda's little farm is the last inhabited spot ; beyond is the 

 illimitable virgin forest, stretching away for hundreds, nay 

 thousands of miles, to the shores of the Atlantic. This 

 forest has not been traversed since 1847, when the bark trade 

 ceased, and it is quite closed up. 



By the desertion of one of my Indians on the day we left 

 Sandia, the other three and Pablo Sevallos were barely able 

 to carry the provisions and other necessaries, so that, on 

 reaching Gironda's clearing, w^hich is called Lenco-huayccu,^ 

 I found that I had only sufficient food to last for six days. 

 Gironda himself was little better off, and was living on roots, 

 and chunus or potatoes preserved by being frozen in the 

 loftiest parts of the Andes. I determined, however, to penetrate 

 into the forest, in search of chinchona-plants, for six days, and 

 to trust to Gironda's kindness to supply me with provisions 

 to enable me to return to Sandia. 



Lenco appears to mean " sticky inud,"" and latayccu is a ravine, in Quiclnia. 



