■'^"17.] Chapman, Distribution of Bird-life in Colombia. 67 



of the pass being 8000 feet. Then the trail winds steadily downward, 

 adhermg closely to the sides of the Rio Canasgordas (Rio Sucio). We spent 

 the first night at the town of Canasgordas, altitude 5000 feet, a settlement 

 of perhaps 5000 people, and next day reached a house called Orobajo, 

 altitude 3225 feet. The river which begins as a small spring just this side 

 of the summit of the range, here attains a width of two hundred feet and is a 

 ragmg torrent, the muddy water leaping and dashing over a bed strewn 

 with huge rounded boulders of granite. Along the banks grow strips of 

 dense bamboo, wild cane and brush interspersed with small patches of culti- 

 vated ground; these strips of verdure do not exceed a few hundred yards 

 in width, and beyond that the country is bare or covered with short, thin 

 grass. This was a surprise to me as I had expected to find the whole west 

 slope heavily forested. 



" We reached Dabeiba late on the Uth; as we reached the summit of the 

 last little knoll, a beautiful panorama was spread before us; a perfectly 

 level valley several miles long and a mile wide, covered with light green 

 vegetation lay at our feet; in the center stood a cluster of forty or fifty 

 white huts — the town of Dabeiba. Here and there a white area contrast- 

 ing strongly with the green, marked the location of a cotton field; and 

 through the center of the valley flowed the Sucio, now swollen to a rapid, 

 muddy stream a few hundred feet wide. The sides of this valley are hemmed 

 in by successive bluffs of sandstone, rising one above the other and at some 

 distance apart, and I could never quite convince myself that this region 

 had not once been covered by a good-sized lake. 



Dabeiba marks the beginning of the coastal forest zone; the change 

 from open country to forest is not gradual, but sharply marked. After col- 

 lecting in this locality three days we accepted the invitation of an acquaint- 

 ance and moved to his house, called Alto Bonito, ten miles down the river 

 from Dabeiba. At the latter place the altitude is 2000 ft.,* and Alto Bonito 

 is 1500 ft. Primeval forest covers all the surrounding country and the 

 abundance of bromelias, ferns, and parasites indicates an abundant rainfall, 

 although there is little underbrush. 



"Eight days were spent at Alto Bonito, and a great many specimens 

 secured that were new to us; but a large percentage were identical with 

 those collected at Puerto Valdivia. 



" The work at Alto Bonito provided the last link in the chain of facts 

 regarding the forested areas of northwestern Colombia, together with facts 

 concerning the extension of the mountain ranges. 



" The Western Cordillera terminates in the Cerro Aguila, just below 



1 1 am convinced that our aneroid registers at least 500 ft. too high; but I have given its readings 

 throughout, except at Puerto Valdivia and at La Playa (Barranquilla). 



