GOISTG TO THE CREVICE. 73 



recognised the proximity of tigers by a porcupine re- 

 cently embowelled. For greater security the Indians 

 returned to the farm, and brought back some dogs of a 

 very small breed. The travellers were assured that in 

 the event of meeting a jaguar in a narrow path he would 

 spring on the dog rather than on a man. They did not 

 proceed along the brink of the torrent, but on the slope 

 of the rocks which overhung the water. They walked 

 on the side of a precipice from two to three hundred feet 

 deep, on a kind of very narrow cornice ; when the cor- 

 nice was so narrow that they could find no place for 

 their feet they descended into the torrent, crossed it by 

 fording, and then climbed the opposite wall. These de- 

 scents were very fatiguing, and it was not safe to trust 

 to the lianas, which hung like great cords from the tops 

 of the trees. The creeping and parasite plants clung but 

 feebty to the branches which they embraced ; the united 

 weight of their stalks was considerable, and the travellers 

 ran the risk of pulling down a whole mass of verdure, 

 if, in walking on a sloping ground, they supported their 

 weight by the lianas. The farther they advanced the 

 thicker the vegetation became. In several places the 

 roots of the trees had burst the rock, by inserting them- 

 selves into the clefts that separated the beds. They had 

 some trouble to carry the plants which they gathered at 

 every step. The cannas, the heliconias with fine purple 

 flowers, the costuses, and other plants of the amomum 

 family, attained here eight or ten feet in height; and 

 their fresh tender verdure, their silky gloss, and the ex- 

 traordinary development of the parenchyma, formed a 

 striking contrast with the brown colour of the arbores- 

 cent ferns, the foliage of which was delicately shaped 



4 



