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



basins of ancient lakes which have, in some way, broken through their 

 barriers and left behind them only those broad flat-bottomed beds of loose 

 muck, which have gradually been covered over with the growth of coarse 

 sedges, except where the small stream still meanders. 



"Just below timber-line the forest is extremely dense with a great deal 

 of moss, caladiums, etc., and with a tree of the banyan type quite prevalent; 

 the fringe of stunted trees is restricted. The trail continues along the ridge 

 for a short distance fringed by low growth, and then begins a steady descent. 

 At 11,000 feet a fair-sized mountain stream is crossed, and then the trail 

 follows approximately down its valley, extremely rocky and stony in parts, 

 and ever very wet with a stream flowing down it. When a level stretch is 

 reached, it is generally very marshy, making progress difficult. In places 

 grea;t cliffs rise perpendicularly for hundreds of feet at either side of the 

 valley, and waterfalls tumble uninterrupted from the top to the river 

 below — at least a thousand feet. These walls could be seen, however, 

 only at intervals when the fog parted for an instant; at other times one could 

 not see fifty feet in advance. Thus the trail descends to Santa Marta at an 

 altitude of 9000 feet. Santa Marta is a rather large but unfinished building 

 used as a general posada by all the Indian packers. It is situated in a 

 beautiful amphitheatre of perhaps a half-mile in diameter, whose perpen- 

 dicular walls are pierced only by the ingress and egress' of the stream (and 

 trail). The river even here is a swollen torrent and called the Magdalena 

 by the Indians; all about is the luxuriant moss forest. It would make an 

 ideal collecting spot. 



"A long day's trip over a trail which is comparable only with that 

 between Cartago and Novita, brings one to Los Monos which is nothing 

 but a small lean-to situated at the edge of a small clearing. Three hours 

 further, ascending and descending, brings one to Penaseca, a niche in a 

 perpendicular clifF under-cut so as to be perfectly dry, and no shelter of any 

 kind has been erected or is necessary. A few hundred feet below, almost 

 straight down, rushes the Magdalena, here a mad torrent. The altitude 

 is but 7000 feet, but the moss forest extends uninterrupted down its course 

 and covers its sides, — a wonderful country! I was sorry not to be in a 

 better position to appreciate it. This country between Santa Marta and 

 Penaseca was the most inviting of the whole trip, and the trail the worst. 

 From Penaseca to San Agustin, two days, the trail is much better though 

 not good. Leaving the Magdalena at Penaseca the trail winds up the 

 opposite ridge until an altitude of 7800 feet is reached, and then commences 

 a gradual descent. All of this is strangely enough covered with a luxuriant 

 moss forest, though less so than that across the valley at the same altitude. 

 It extends down to about 7000 feet where a decided change is noticeable. 



