Chap. XIX. THE " KED BARKS." 315 



cliff, and that in its place there was a deep whirlpool ; so, 

 with the driftwood along the banks, a bridge had to be made 

 where the river was narrowed between two rocks, by which 

 his party crossed ^\-ith the baggage. Then, after a long 

 search, he found a place where the horses could swim across, 

 and, by rolling down masses of earth and stones, a way was 

 made for them to ascend on the other side. Once across, a 

 hut was made among vegetable-ivory palms, thatched with 

 the palm-fronds, and 3Ir. Spruce commenced the examination 

 of the forest. 



After a long search, during which he passed several felled 

 trunks of chinchona-trees, he at length came ujjon a root- 

 shoot about twenty feet high. It is very rare to find these 

 root-shoots, because the bark is stripped from the roots 

 as Avell as from the trunk. Mr. Spruce, from his observations 

 in the Pumachaca forest, came to the conclusion that the 

 " red-bark " trees grow best on stony declivities, where there 

 is, however, a good depth of humus, at an elevation of from 

 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea. The temperature was very 

 like that of a summer day in London, but with cold mists 

 towards evening, and from January to May unceasing rain. 

 He found the chinchona-trees, in this part of the country, 

 almost entirely extirpated, and, after a short stay at Lucmas, 

 he proceeded to examine the region of the " hill barks " or 

 cascarillas serranas, wliich is at an elevation of 8500 to 9000 

 feet, on both sides of the river Chanchan. In the forest 

 of Llalla, at the foot of the mountain of Asuay, he found two 

 kinds called by the natives cucJu-cara (pig-skin) and imta de 

 gallinazo ;^ and on a stony hill-side there were twenty large 

 trees of the former, from 40 to 50 feet high. 



By this excursion in the summer of 1859 Mr. Spruce 

 ascertained the districts where he should not go to, a very 



3 This is not the same as the puta I been named by INIr. Howard C. Peru- 

 de gullinazo of Huanueo, which has | viana. 



