126 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



The second day's march we hoped would be over a gentler 

 slope, but it was soon discovered that our ridge consisted 

 of a number of knolls rising from five hundred to a thousand 

 feet above the mean level, and the forest grew denser con- 

 stantly. Every foot of the way had to be cleared. In places 

 we actually walked over the top of the vegetation; the 

 branches were covered with a solid tangle of creepers, climb- 

 ing bamboo, bromelias, and moss, and formed springy aerial 

 bridges. More frequently it was easier to burrow under- 

 neath, so tunnels many yards long were cut, through which 

 the porters crawled on hands and knees. The tops of some 

 of the eminences were void of trees, their place being taken 

 by jungles of bamboo, wild oleanders, shrubs, and clumps 

 of tall, coarse grass with blades eight feet high and six inches 

 wide, the edges of which cut like knives. That night we 

 camped at eleven thousand three hundred and fifty feet up. 

 The men eagerly cut down clumps of bromelias, hoping to 

 obtain water from the bases of the leaves, but all they found 

 were a few drops of vile, black liquid filled with drowned 

 insects. Although we had travelled steadily for ten hours, 

 I doubt if we had covered more than three miles. 



A few hours after starting, on the morning of the third day, 

 we emerged suddenly from the gloom of the forest. In- 

 stead of the tall, overburdened trees, there were extensive 

 areas covered with brush, evergreens, stunted pines, and 

 ferns. Beyond stretched the bleak, wind-swept slope of 

 the Paramillo. At sight of this, the porters struggled on 

 frantically, for the attaining of the goal meant a release 

 from their heavy burdens — and water. That afternoon 

 the last knoll had been crossed and the packs deposited on 

 a rocky flat which was to serve as a camping-site. Each 

 man started in a difference direction in search of a brook, 

 and by dusk a pot-hole at the bottom of a ravine, and only a 

 few hundred yards from camp, had been found containing 

 several hundred gallons of pure, icy water. Never was a 

 discovery more earnestly welcomed, and the men sprawled 

 around the edges of the pool and drank their fill; then it 



