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



is that there are pretty heavy showers in the late afternoon and rarely a 

 rainstorm at night; the mornings were bright and cloudy, with low-hanging 

 clouds until shortly after sunrise. Occasional gusts of clouds blew in during 

 the mornings, but lasted a few minutes only. The prevailing wind was from 

 the east." 



Medellin to Puerto Valdivia: — "From MedeUin we took the train to 

 Barbosa, an hour and a half away; then we took mules. The trail at first 

 goes up very abruptly from 4625 feet to 8100 feet, which point we reached 

 at noon, three hours after starting. The country is barren of forest, 

 although there are a few small patches of brush. The high plateau is rough 

 and broken with many granite boulders strewn about. Santa Rosa, 9200 

 feet, seven leagues from Barbosa is a town of a few hundred houses, situated 

 in almost desert country; there are numerous mines in the vicinity, and 

 many diggings and tunnels are visible from the trail. This dry, desert 

 country continues for about two leagues beyond Santa Rosa; then small 

 patches of open, rather stunted forest begin and continue for three leagues, 

 interspersed with llanos; this forest has little undergrowth, but the trunks 

 and branches are covered with short yellowish moss; apparently there is 

 not much rainfall. Woodpeckers (Melanerpes) abound in this semi- 

 forested zone. Now follow two more leagues of almost barren country 

 until the town of Yarumal, 7000 feet, is reached. Yarumel is a good-sized 

 town, nearly as large as Santa Rosa. It rests on a steep hillside, so steep, 

 in fact, that it is difficult to walk on the streets. 



About a league bej'ond Yarumal magnificent first-growth forest begins, 

 and continues with minor interruptions only until Valdivia, six leagues 

 away. This forest reminds me much of that at San Antonio, above Cali, 

 and there is doubtless an abundance of rain; small torrents are also numer- 

 ous. The altitude of Valdivia is 4200 feet. In the immediate vicinity of 

 the town the forest has been cut away, but a mile beyond it again starts and 

 continues down to the Cauca River. This lowland forest is as tall or taller, 

 but has less moss, etc. than the high country forest. The distance from 

 Valdivia to Puerto Valdivia is one and a half leagues. We made the trip 

 from Medellin to the port in four and ahalf days. 



" The Cauca, at Puerto Valdivia (alt. 360 ft.), flows directly between the 

 Western and Central Ranges, without any valley whatever. The mountains 

 slope up sharply right from the water's edge on both sides and are heavily 

 forested except for a few small clearings where corn and cacoa grow, but 

 the clearings are too few and far between to amount to anything. 



" The climate was hot, the temperature often reaching 85°, but a daily 

 breeze in the afternoon, blowing up the Cauca, cooled the atmosphere con- 

 siderably. We had comparatively little rain. The rainy months are April, 



