THE CHOCO COUNTRY 65 



they could give no information of practical value. We 

 haunted the market and other places where peons congre- 

 gate in numbers in our endeavor to secure porters for the 

 trip. The few who reluctantly expressed a readiness to go 

 did not seem physically fit for such strenuous work, so I 

 rejected them. One day a caravan of oxen arrived from 

 the settlement of Salencio, and I hastily engaged them for 

 the return trip, as these animals, while slow, are sure-footed, 

 and can pick their way through mud and jungle that horses 

 could not penetrate. 



Leaving Cartago, we crossed the arid Cauca Valley; the 

 land west of the river is more rolling than on the opposite 

 bank, but the character of the plant life is much the same. 

 Within an hour Ansermanueva, a cluster of twenty or 

 thirty adobe hovels, was sighted in the distance, but the 

 trail divided just before reaching the village and we fol- 

 lowed the southern branch. Beyond this fork the climb 

 into the mountains began; there are two ridges, six thou- 

 sand eight hundred feet and seven thousand five hundred 

 feet high respectively, with a ravine of five thousand eight 

 hundred feet between. The " cloud" forest does not begin 

 below the top of the first ridge; then there is an abundance 

 of mosses, ferns, bromelias and other epiphytes forming a 

 growth that is both rank and beautiful, and equalling in 

 density that found in any other region. The greater lux- 

 uriance of the flora on the western slope indicated a heav- 

 ier rainfall on that side; this is accounted for by the fact 

 that the summits of the various ridges stop the moisture- 

 laden winds from the Pacific, to a large extent, and cause 

 them to precipitate the water on the ocean side of the divide. 



Within two days we arrived at Salencio, small, dilapi- 

 dated, situated on a little plateau between the peaks, and 

 inhabited mainly by half-breeds. We were advised to wait 

 until the weekly market-day, when many people from the 

 surroundings would come to town, and it would be possi- 

 ble to secure porters for the continuation of the journey. 

 In the meantime we made short excursions into the neigh- 



