A GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLANDS 



Fig. 32. From the trail across the Salsipuedes highland, looking SE. Photo C. Skottsberg ^i/^ 191 7. 



Cordon Salsipuedes forms the western boundary of Cumberland Bay and runs 

 from the main range to Pta San Carlos (figs. 3, 27, 31), along the east side of the 

 Salsipuedes highland between the bay and Pto Ingles. Whether the name, which 

 means "get out, if you can", was originally applied to the coastal escarpment, 380 m 

 high on Friederichsen's map, I cannot tell. A well-worn zigzag trail, also used 

 as a bridle-path, unites the colony with Pto Ingles and crosses the ridge at about 

 410 m. From here it is not difficult to follow the ridge up to over 700 m; who 

 attempts to continue until the rib abuts on the backbone takes his life in his hands, 

 for the ridge is a knife-edge, studded wath crags. Already at about 600 m it is only 

 I — 2 m wide, and the rise, quite gentle farther down, increases to 25 — 30°. As 

 we climb, scrub, brushwood and forest succeed each other on the slopes. 



The declivity facing the Colony is sculptured by a series of shallow gullies, of 

 which the two nearest to the coast are treeless, whereas the others are wooded. 

 A comparison between fig. 30 from 1952 and Skottsb. 3 PI. 90: i from 19 16 makes 

 it clear that the forest patches have undergone no perceptible change in size. The 

 floor of the fourth quebrada (counted from Pta San Carlos) slopes 30°; the forest 

 is of an open, degraded luma-canelo type with much maqui. There is no water in 

 these gullies. The gullies of the main ridge, O. Gutierrez and O. del Monte 

 Maderugo, were thickly wooded in 19 1 7 (monte maderugo = forest full of timber). 



The trail to Pto Ingles ascends the buttress between the gullies no. 2 and 3, 

 descends on an undulating slope (fig. 32), crosses Loma de los Muiioces and descends 



8 — 537351 The Nat. Hist, of Juan Fernandez and Easter Isl. Vol. I. 



