150 



MALOS PASOS. 



rude drums, and fifes of reed , and it was quite amusing to see the 

 alcalde, a large, painted, grave-looking Indian, trotting round like a 

 dog on a tread mill, with a penny whistle at his mouth. I am told 

 that they will dance in this way as long as there is drink, if it reach to 

 a month. I myself have heard their music — the last thing at night as I 

 was going to bed, and the first thing in the morning as I was getting 

 up — for days at a time. The tune never changes, and seems to be the 

 same everywhere in the Montana. It is a monotonous tapping of the 

 drum, very like our naval heat to quarters. 



"We embarked at the Carlo port, and dropped down the Cano, a mile 

 and a half to the river. We found the river deep and winding, and 

 running, generally, between high cliffs of a white rock. The white, 

 however, is superficial, and seems to be imparted by age and weather. 

 Where the action of the water had worn the white off, the rock showed 

 dark brown, and in layers of about two feet thick, the seams running 

 1ST. N. W. and S. S. E., and at an angle elevated towards the north of 

 45°. It is argillaceous schist, which is the character of most of the 

 rock of this country. 



We passed the mal-paso of Shapiama, and, with fifteen minutes' in- 

 terval, those of Savolayacu and Cachihuanushca. In the first two the 

 canoes were let down with ropes, and we shot the last under oar, which 

 I was surprised at, as I had heard that it was one of the worst on the 

 river. Malos pasos, however, which are formidable when the river is 

 full, are comparatively safe when it is low ; and vice versa. Smyth passed 

 when the river was high — I at the opposite season ; and for this reason 

 our accounts of the rapids would vary and appear contradictory. 



After passing the last we found the hills lower, the country more 

 ©pen, and the river wider and with a gentler flow. The average depth 

 to-day in the smooth parts is thirty feet ; current, three miles. 



We passed the port of Valle on the left. A small stream enters 

 here. The town, containing five hundred inhabitants, is six miles from ( 

 the port. 



About sunset we arrived at Challuayacu, a settlement of twenty 

 houses. All the inhabitants, except those of one ffouse, were absent. 

 W 7 e were told that they had been disobedient in some matter to the 

 governor of the district, and that he had come upon them with a force 

 and carried them off prisoners to Juan Juy, a large town further down 

 the river, where authority might be brought to bear upon them. 



The village is situated in a large and fertile plain, which reaches 

 from near the town of Valle, on the S. W., to Pachisa, on the N.; but 

 this is not yet settled or cultivated, and, as at Sion, nothing is produced 



