119 
hates 
woods, Ochroma, with but darker foliage, being 
prominent. There are many climbing vines, but few epiphytes 
and these high and inaccessible. 
From the coast to the pie in veges about La Dorada 
oe neere predominates: Tom were the little 
1 4 be ae 
Pena | dict 
its volts of conpaniat palms, near at hand each with its platano- 
re ie cag thatched huts, and ic Gove of naked brown- 
altogeth rican. Above 
La Dorada and Honda ae negro is rarely seen, the whites of 
Spanish descent predominate, or else, more especially toward 
Neiva, these mixed with Indian blood. 
orada our boat-journey was broken to take the railroad 
to Beltran, just below Ambalema. This line was built primarily 
beyond t da w rned westward about fifteen 
miles to Mariquita, thence southward across assy 
plain of Tolima he upper valley of th gdalena is decidedly 
arid and erosion has produced topographical effects like those of 
eastern Colorado 
e rode up near the river toward Honda, and as we went 
on to Mariquita, through a beautiful clear morning of July, 
we saw before us, and seeming but a little journey away, the sharp 
peak of the Nevado of Tolima. How clearly we could trace the 
limit of snow on its slope! North of it, but less seen, was the 
really nearer snow-dome of Ruiz. Now that I have mentioned 
these summits, a word in explanation of the m ntain- -syst 
ia. A 
each range a narrow river valley. The ie Oasel 
