26 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXVI, 



The crest of the ridge is narrow and about 150 feet down the eastern 

 slope the character of the forest changed completely. Tree ferns, parasites, 

 and epiphytes largely disappeared and trees with small leaves replaced the 

 cecropias and other large-leaved species of the western and more humid 

 slope. There was little undergrowth and the woods bore a general resem- 

 blance to an open beech forest. 



This growth persisted to the shores of a fair-sized stream at the bot- 

 tom of an almost V-shaped valley, 1400 feet below and west of the summit 

 of the ridge to the west. The succeeding ridge, or east wall of the valley, is 

 of apparently the same height as the first ridge and is densely wooded to 

 its summit. The trail, however, did not extend beyond the bottom of the 

 valley and we made no attempt to explore the uninhabited mountains to 

 the east. 



The Reconnaissance ovee the Quindio. 



Cali to Cartago. — The journey from Juanchito, the port of Call, to 

 Cartago was made by steamer on the Cauca River. The river is narrow 

 enough (averaging one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards in width) 

 to permit one to see the details of both banks; the water was high, the cur- 

 rent about three miles an hour. The distance in an air-line between Cali 

 and Cartago is ninety miles, by the river 172 miles; but if the winding 

 course of the steamer increases the length of the journey, it also adds to the 

 charm of it. 



The Cauca flows on the western side of the valley, its waters occasionally 

 washing the foothills of the Western Andes. The country through which 

 it passes is most diversified and attractive. Broad marshes flanked by 

 dryer savannas, bamboo forests, patches of plumed wild cane, cacao groves 

 and stretches of plantains near the small settlements or ports of the larger 

 towns which, like Cali, were some miles from the river, made a pleasing and 

 varied panorama of river scenery. Later we encountered heavy, primeval, 

 bottomland forest, such as surrounds the port of Rio Frio, selected as a 

 locality for subsequent investigation by Miller and Allen. These forests, 

 however, are not to be compared in extent to those which border the Magda- 

 lena River, for example, and are doubtless limited to areas where they re- 

 ceive sufficient subsurface litigation to nourish them. 



Large White and Snowy Egrets, the latter much the less common. 

 Gray-green and Night Herons, Wood Ibis, Roseate Spoonbills, Cormorants, 

 Jacanas, Pigeons {Columba rufina) a few Ducks, including an occasional 

 Muscovy, and Cassiques {Ostinops decumanus) were the birds most 

 commonly seen from the steamer, while mammals were represented 



