73 



farms, and brought back some dogs of a very 

 small breed. We were assured, that in the 

 event of meeting a jaguar in a narrow path, 

 he springs on the dog rather than on the man. 

 We did not proceed on the brink of the torrent, 

 but on the slope of the rocks which overhung 

 the water. We walked on the side of a preci- 

 pice from two to three hundred feet deep, on a 

 kind of very narrow cornice, like the road 

 which leads from the Grindelwald along the 

 Mettenberg to the great glacier. When the 

 cornice was so narrow, that we could find no 

 place for our feet, we descended into the tor- 

 tent, crossed it by fording or on the shoulders of 

 a slave, and climbed the opposite wall. These 

 descents are very fatiguing, and it is not safe 

 to trust to the lianas, which hang like great 

 cords from the tops of the trees. The creeping 

 and parasite plants cling but feebly to the 

 branches which they embrace : the united weight 

 of their stalks is considerable, and you run the 

 risk of pulling down a whole mass of verdure, 

 if, in walking on a sloping ground, you support 

 your weight by the lianas. The farther we 

 advanced, the thicker the vegetation became. 

 In several places the roots of the trees had 

 burst the calcareous rock, by inserting them- 

 selves into the clefts that separate the beds. 

 We had some trouble to carry the plants we ga- 

 thered at every step. The cannas, the helico 



