130 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



its snapping, insatiable beak. We spent the first night in 

 the town of Canasgordas, and the second in a dilapidated 

 house known as Orobajo. The family living here was in 

 great distress owing to an epidemic of some kind of virulent 

 fever which had appeared in the district. There was no 

 food in the house, with the exception of a few beans, but 

 after scouring the neighborhood our cook succeeded in 

 purchasing a hen and a dozen jarepas which we divided 

 with the infirm family. 



While waiting for supper we went on a tour of inspection 

 over the premises and located a house-wren's nest in the 

 roof. It contained one young bird, and the people told us 

 that the other had been killed by falling to the ground. 

 Later we found several other nests of this species, but in 

 no instance were there more than two eggs or birds in one 

 nest. This fact is most interesting; in a temperate climate 

 the house-wrens rear a large brood— eight being not an 

 uncommon number of young; but near the equator two 

 seemed to be the usual amount. 



Below Orobajo the river is known as the Heradura. It 

 flows past the village of Uramita, which was all but de- 

 serted. The fever that had invaded Orobajo had also 

 visited this place and more than half the inhabitants had 

 died. A few men were engaged in pumping salt water 

 from shallow wells which was led in bamboo pipes to a 

 battery of low pans where boiling evaporated the water 

 and left the salt. So far as we could see there was no other 

 industry in the town. 



Dabeiba, our first objective, was reached the third day 

 after leaving Buritica. As we gained the summit of the 

 last ridge, a wonderful view lay before our eyes. The little 

 town, composed of whitewashed houses with red-tile roofs, 

 glistened in a flat valley carpeted with the softest green. 

 On one side a river, called the Rio Sucio, raged and fumed 

 over a rock-encumbered bed; fields of cotton dotted its 

 banks, the snowy bolls and yellow blossoms almost obliter- 

 ating the large green leaves. Forested hills enclosed the 



