CROSSING THE BOLIVIAN HIGHLANDS 287 



telling us the history of the gap in the trail. Vultures 

 hovered over the spot and perched on the scant vegetation, 

 and from below came an overpowering stench. What more 

 was needed to reveal the fact that the missing section of 

 trail, in its mad dash through space, had taken with it the 

 pack-train of mules, and probably the men attending them, 

 which chanced to be passing at the time. 



Miguelito is only three miles below Locotal, and consists 

 of three or four huts in the centre of a grassy clearing. 

 The Quechuas who live there are friendly, and one may be 

 sure of a welcome for a night's stop. 



At five thousand five hundred feet the forest becomes 

 taller and the trees attain a greater diameter. The vegeta- 

 tion of the subtropic zone reaches its highest development 

 at this altitude. After crossing a ridge six thousand seven 

 hundred feet high, the trail descends a long slope into the 

 Yungas, properly known as the Yungas of Cochabamba. 

 At the base of the ridge, and shortly before entering the 

 cultivated area, we crossed the dry, narrow bed of a stream 

 which was filled with rocks bearing the imprints of leaves, 

 and also fossil shells. 



Yungas is the name given to the fertile mountain slopes 

 which have been cleared of forest and cultivated ; it stretches 

 along the sides of the Rio Yungas for a number of miles, 

 and huts dot the roadside at frequent intervals. When 

 we visited the region in June only the Indian caretakers 

 lived in the habitations, the coca, which is the principal 

 product, having been collected a short time before, and 

 the propietarios having gone back to Cochabamba. The 

 owners visit their plantations three times a year, supervise 

 the picking and packing of the leaves and, after a month, 

 return to Cochabamba to sell the drug and live on the 

 proceeds until the next harvest. 



After spending an hour in questioning the occupants of 

 the various houses which we passed, we succeeded in locat- 

 ing the house to which we had been invited. It was a low, 

 one-room board structure, open at both ends, and with 



