THE CHOCO COUNTRY 67 



paring hot food, caused us to long for the comforts of a 

 huge camp-fire. Dry wood was out of the question, but 

 the men cut down a tree, the green wood of which burned 

 readily, and had soon started a fire adequate for working 

 purposes. Their ponchos, which had become saturated 

 with water, were of no service in keeping them warm, so 

 they sat up the entire night, singing, telling stories, and 

 drinking hot coffee in their endeavors to remain cheerful 

 and keep warm. 



On the following day the vegetation was far more dense, 

 and advantage was taken of numerous narrow fissures in 

 the mountainside roofed over with logs and moss; through 

 these tunnels we crawled on hands and knees, but that 

 was easier than forcing a way through the tangled mass of 

 plants growing above. When camp was made that night 

 the base of a tree was selected for a fireplace. At first 

 glance it seemed that the diameter of the vine-covered 

 trunk must be at least ten feet, but this was a delusion. 

 After the men had vigorously plied their machetes on the 

 creepers, moss, and ferns, a stem not over two feet across 

 was revealed; they cleared away the lower tangle, leaving 

 a protecting umbrella-like canopy overhead that shielded 

 the entire party from the rain while they cooked their food. 



We crossed three ridges in all, the elevation of each being 

 shghtly in excess of seven thousand feet, with depressions 

 of from two thousand feet to three thousand feet between 

 them. All are heavily forested, the growth above four 

 thousand feet being subtropical in character, while that 

 lower down is typical of the tropics and comparatively 

 open. 



At the end of the third day we heard the welcome roar 

 of water, and not long after halted on the bank of the 

 Hdvita River. A naked negro came from the far side in 

 answer to our calls, and ferried us across the stream in a 

 huge dugout canoe. There we found a settlement of half 

 a dozen bamboo huts filled with lazy negroes clothed in 

 scanty attire. The place is called El Puente. About one 



