CHAPTER XIX. 



BEJTEATII THE FOREST. 



Leave Papallacta. — "Wretclied Trail. — Torrents and Land-slides. — Our 

 Camp. — Baeza. — Fording tlie Ilondachi. — Separated from our Train. — 

 Archidona and Archidonians. — Photographing Indians. — A New 

 Train. — Tropical Forest. — Scarcity of Animals. — Sight of the Eio 

 Napo. 



Upon the moi-ning appointed, the 5th of IsToveniber, 

 we turned our backs to Papallacta, and, with our Indian 

 train, wliich, by the addition of several of the wives oi 

 our aiatives, had increased to thirty, we entered the dense 

 forest that for two weeks was to shut out every satisfac- 

 tory view of the sky above. The trail which we followed 

 was all but impassable : at times it led us up almost per- 

 pendicular acclivities, then dropped to the bottom of some 

 fearful ravine ; sometimes we floundered through matted 

 marshes, or forded, with the greatest difficulty, the tor- 

 rents which rushed across our trail ; frequently the rocky 

 cliffs, or tangled forest, so closely hemmed the streams 

 that the trail would be forced into the current, and waist- 

 deep in water we would follow down their courses, or 

 tread our vv'ay upon the detached rocks along their banks. 

 In order to form any conception of the torrents wb'.eh rush 

 down the eastern slope of the Andes, it must be remem- 

 bered that we have here, not the watei'-system constituting 

 the drainage of a short liill-side, but that of the *:iV.vIng 



