CARTAGO TO RUIZ AND SANTA ISABEL 61 



The weather was usually agreeable during the greater 

 part of the day, the thermometer registering in the neigh- 

 borhood of 76 at noon, and dropping to 30 at night. It 

 rained little, but banks of clouds rolled in frequently and 

 precipitated a superabundance of moisture. 



One day Allen and I undertook an exploration trip to the 

 snow-line. We started at daybreak, taking with us our 

 guns, an abundant supply of ammunition, cameras, and a 

 small parcel of lunch. We made straight for the head of 

 the valley, passed the lake, and had soon reached the top 

 of the weathered ridge that formed the first barrier to our 

 progress. From the summit, fourteen thousand four hun- 

 dred feet up, we could see numerous other isolated depres- 

 sions like the one we had just left; in one of them was a 

 newly made trench probably the work of some venture- 

 some miner who had drifted to this lonely place in search of 

 gold. So far we had had not a glimpse of snow on ac- 

 count of the heavy mist. We followed along the top of a 

 hogback running northward and gradually leading to higher 

 country that flattened out into a marshy plateau on its 

 farther end. Progress was difficult. At each step the bog 

 quivered within a radius of several yards and the clumps of 

 matted vegetation depressed by our weight were quickly 

 covered with water that oozed from below. This was an 

 ideal spot for snipe and several sprang up as we painfully 

 picked our way over the treacherous ground; but the great 

 exertion and high altitude had a demoralizing effect on our 

 aim, with the result that we were relieved of a good deal of 

 ammunition without securing a single bird in return. 



A high wall of bare rock rose just beyond the confines of 

 the bog, and gaining the top of it we were up fifteen thou- 

 sand feet. It was covered with blackened rock fragments 

 mostly the result of weathering, but some of them prob- 

 ably detached from the many towering crags and columns 

 by the shattering force of lightning. The highest point in 

 the wall is fifteen thousand two hundred feet. As we rested 

 a moment to recover our breath, a procedure necessary 



