104 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



After a strenuous three weeks at La Morelia we returned 

 to our first stopping-place near Florencia. The rainy sea- 

 son was at its worst, and low clouds covered the forest day 

 after day, while torrents of water fell almost continuously. 

 The journey back to Guadaloupe was far more difficult 

 than had been our entrance into the region, for the greater 

 part of it lay up-hill and mud and water had accumulated 

 in spots until it was waist-deep. The cold grew more in- 

 tense as we neared the top of the range. We were never 

 warm or dry until we reached our destination. 



The maximum time allowed for work in Colombia had 

 expired. Although I had spent over eighteen months in 

 the republic, they had flown all too rapidly, and I heartily 

 regretted that it was not possible to visit the numerous 

 other places that invited exploration. The next best thing 

 was to hope for a return trip in the future — a hope that was 

 realized several years later in our expedition to the Antio- 

 quian Highlands. 



The homeward trip was accomplished without noteworthy 

 incident. At first there was a ride of five days' duration 

 down the desert-like valley of the Magdalena to Neiva. 

 The river is not navigable in this part of its course on 

 account of rapids and shallow water. At Neiva a champdn, 

 or flat-bottomed freight-boat, was secured. The crew of 

 twenty men rowed it down to Giradot in three days; it 

 takes them thirty days to pull the craft back up-stream to 

 the starting-point. 



The remainder of the journey to Puerto Colombia was 

 merely a matter of travel on river-steamers and train, and 

 required two weeks' time. 



In summarizing the work of the expedition to the Ca- 

 queta, Doctor Chapman, in "The Distribution of Bird 

 Life in Colombia," writes as follows: 



This "work during the rainy season in the humid Ama- 

 zonian forests of the Caqueta, where with only unskilled 

 native assistance he secured eight hundred and thirty birds 

 and mammals in thirty days, is a feat in tropical collect- 



