Todd^Carrikee : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 25 



" Towards sunset, after having scaled two passes, 10,000 and 12,000 

 feet respectively in height, we were not sorry to reach the lovely 

 green pastures of Adureimeina, where the Government have had a 

 hut built, open to all travellers, a most commendable' and useful insti- 

 tution, and there is not a path in the whole territory of the Nevada 

 that has not these huts at half-day stages. Should they be burnt down 

 or otherwise destroyed, every Indian must contribute his mite for their 

 immediate reconstruction. Starting early the next morning, we man- 

 aged, after much fatigue, partly on foot and partly on horse, to reach 

 the third pass, 14,000 feet high, before the afternoon clouds obscured 

 the view. It had threatened rain all the morning, so I was ag^reeably 

 surprised to find the clouds breaking, and the whole snowy range of 

 peaks standing boldly out on a deep blue sky. The scenery of the 

 Sierra Nevada is excessively grand, but it is too desolate, too barren, 

 to be really beautiful; even the loveliest flowers at this time of year 

 so abundant, appear small and insignificant, and are entirely lost amid 

 the general desolation. Late in the afternoon we arrived at headquar- 

 ters, an Indian cattle corral on the Rio Cataca, the highest habitation in 

 the Nevada. The mean boiling-point here was 194.4°, giving a height 

 of 9,500 feet; this is considerably below the aneroid observations of 

 my previous visits, which were often as high as 11,000 feet above sea- 

 level. The Indians feed large herds of cattle and sheep on the rich 

 pastures of the Nevada, but do not attend to them, so they run com- 

 pletely wild, and are for commercial purposes totally lost. Pigs, not 

 the indigenous wild pig, but domestic animals brought up by the 

 Indians and then abandoned, are plentiful, and, together with a red 

 buck, whi-ch is also pretty common, afford capital sport. The only 

 drawback is the trouble of getting up plantains, maize, and other 

 bread-stuffs from San Sebastian, the time we were able to remain be- 

 ing regulated by their supply, for nothing will induce the Indian to 

 stay after the last plantain is consumed. After spending a few days in 

 reconnoitring the surrounding heights, we started on the 6th, and made 

 our way up one of the numerous valleys, which all run north and 

 south, at right angles to the central or snowy range; these again are 

 cut by the river Cataca and two of its affluents which follow parallel 

 to the snowy peaks. 



" Five hours of rather dangerous riding, along mountain ridges 

 and the banks of deep blue lakes, brought us into a sort of cul-de-sac. 



