IN QUEST OF THE COCK-OF-THE-ROCK 83 



After a short, steep climb we were out on the bleak 

 paramo, in the midst of the rain, hail, and mist. The wind 

 blew a gale and the cold was intense. Through an occa- 

 sional break in the banks of fog we had glimpses of the 

 valley on each side filled with dense clumps of frailejones. 

 We continued on in the face of the blinding storm for sev- 

 eral hours, but with the coming of darkness the trail left 

 the wind-swept zone and started downward, winding along 

 the canyon of the Magdalena; in the failing light the scenery 

 was bewitchingly beautiful. High, rugged peaks, sheer 

 cliffs, and black masses of forest towered above the spar- 

 kling stream that bounded from rock to rock in a succession 

 of falls. Allen and Lloyd had gone on ahead, and after 

 dark I came upon them camped in a unique spot. They 

 had thrown their blankets on a ledge in the face of a cliff 

 that towered several hundred feet above them. A tiny 

 waterfall dashed over the edge of the precipice, cleared the 

 ledge, and joined the greater torrent below. The regular 

 night's stopping-place is known as Santa Marta, which the 

 Indians reached at nine that night. 



Immediately after arriving at the camping site the por- 

 ters boiled corn-meal, which they ate with brown sugar. 

 Each man had brought a sheepskin to use as a bed, and 

 these were dried beside the fire while their food was cook- 

 ing. Before starting in the morning they had another meal 

 of mush and sugar. During the gruelling day their mouths 

 were kept well filled with coca and lime, and the apparent 

 amount of sustenance and endurance derived from the herb 

 is extraordinary; nor does it seem to have any bad after- 

 effect, though in Almaguer I saw a number of shaky old 

 women with bloodshot eyes and blackened lips and teeth, 

 said to be due to the result of excessive indulgence in coca. 



The second night we failed to catch up with the men 

 who had gone on ahead. We had waded streams and knee- 

 deep mud the greater part of the day as the result of the 

 steady downpour which rendered the trail indescribably 

 bad; everything was drenched and it required more than an 



