16 t THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



nels. Our canoemen were always in disagreement, however, and 

 as often as not we shot down rapids at a speed of twenty miles an 

 hour, broadside on, with an occasional bump on projecting rocks 

 or boulders whose warning ordinary boatmen would not let go 

 unheeded. 



The scenery at the great bend is unusually beautiful. The 

 tropical forest crowds the river bank, great cliffs rise sheer from 

 the water's edge, their faces overhung with a trailing drapery of 

 vines, and in the longer river vistas one may sometimes see the 

 distant heights of the Cordillera Vilcapampa. We shot the long 

 succession of rapids in the first canyon without mishap, and at 

 night pitched our tent on the edge of the river near the mouth of 

 the Manugali. 



From the sharp peak opposite our camp we saw for the first 

 time the phenomenon of cloud-banners. A light breeze was blow- 

 ing from the western mountains and its vapor was condensed into 

 clouds that floated down the wind and dissolved, while they were 

 constantly forming afresh at the summit. In the night a thunder- 

 storm arose and swept with a roar through the vast forest above 

 us. The solid canopy of the tropical forest fairly resounded with 

 the impact of the heavy raindrops. The next morning all the 

 brooks from the farther side of the river were in flood and the 

 river discolored. When we broke camp the last mist wraiths of 

 the storm were still trailing through the tree-tops and wrapped 

 about the peak opposite our camp, only parting now and then to 

 give us delightful glimpses of a forest-clad summit riding high 

 above the clouds. 



The alternation of deeps and shallows at this point in the river 

 and the well-developed canyon meanders are among the most cele- 

 brated of their kind in the world. Though shut in by high cliffs 

 and bordered by mountains the river exhibits a succession of 

 curves so regular that one might almost imagine the country a 

 plain from the pattern of the meanders. The succession of smooth 

 curves for a long distance across existing mountains points to a 

 time when a lowland plain with moderate slopes drained by 

 strongly meandering rivers was developed here. Uplift afforded 



