56 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



danger of their floundering and pitching headlong down 

 the mountainside. The arrieros took the utmost precau- 

 tions, but even then one of the mules became overbalanced 

 and fell off the trail. Fortunately the trees grew close to- 

 gether and one of the packs became wedged between two 

 of them and halted the rolling creature a short distance 

 below. It struggled there with feet in the air until the 

 peons released it and led it back to the trail. 



Toward evening we reached a native hut — the second 

 since leaving the valley. The elevation of the place was 

 ten thousand five hundred feet. A large clearing in which 

 white clover grew abundantly surrounded the house. The 

 inhabitants also had other clearings farther down, where 

 they planted corn and wheat. They were all suffering with 

 colds and the dreaded dengue, from which I was fortunately 

 able to give them some relief with the aid of our medical 

 kit. In return for this service they treated us most courte- 

 ously and placed one of their two rooms at our disposal, 

 although it happened that a score or more of chickens 

 occupied the same quarters. The night was cold and 

 damp. Next morning the wretched people gave us milk 

 and cheese and we purchased several dozen eggs — certainly 

 a great luxury in such an out-of-the-way place. They also 

 showed us the skin and feet of a tapir one of the men had 

 killed in the forest above. The hide had been used to 

 make bottoms for chairs and was of a black color. They 

 reported the presence of two species of bears, one entirely 

 black and the other the tolerably well-known spectacled 

 bear. Although the latter is the only species of bear sup- 

 posed to exist in South America, I have been told repeat- 

 edly by the people that a large black bear is found in the 

 high Andes and have seen skins that appeared to bear out 

 their statements. 



After leaving the house next morning we soon reached 

 heavy mountain forest. A deserted hut stood near the 

 border of it, so on our return from the paramo we spent 

 several days there. The chief attraction about the place 



