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ox THE TOPOGKAPHY AND GEOLOGY 



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canon would permit, climbing over boulders and fallen pine trees, until we wei'e forced 

 to take the hill-side. Bj this time we were so high as to be on the margin of the 

 pine woods, but well into an undergrov/th of tall fern. This plant is so tangled that 

 the trail must be cut, every foot of the way with "machetes." Sometimes the whole 

 party would climb over the top of it, bearing it down hj main force ; oftener we had 

 to crawl under it, through tunnels cut by the big ""machetes " or wood-knives of the 

 servants, and whene\Tr we could we gladly availed ourselves of the fallen trunk of a 

 dead tree, crawling along it like a troop of monkeys, hands and feet alike doing duty. 

 The march was doubly toilsome because we all can-icd loads. Myself with a bag 

 and hammer, and worse than all a mountain barometer, that had to be guarded against 

 blows, and all of the others loaded down with hammocks, blankets, provisions, etc., 

 we learned, if never before, why the Romans called baggage " imjjedmienta.'''' On 

 leaving the river we, left all running water behind and when our canteens were ex- 

 hausted, were fortunate in finding on top of the ridge, in eveiy sheltered place, a little 

 clump of trees. On most of them were numerous orchids, and in the caps, formed 

 by their leaves, which envelope like those of a pine apple, we found a small quantity, 

 from a half ounce to an ounce, of dirty water. But old travellers are not fastidious 

 and we escaped serious thirst. Late in the afternoon it became evident that we 

 would not reach the summit that day, though the clouds that enveloped us would not 

 permit us to see how far we were from our destination. It was decided however to 

 stop where a clump of small pine trees offered the means of making a partial shelter 

 from threatened rain. Our shed was hardly completed and covered with Avater-pi'oof 

 clothes and overcoat before a heavy shower came up. A palm leaf that had served 

 as wrapj)er for our cassara bread, was hastily made into a receptable for water, and 

 by industriously collecting from all the drips with coffee-pot and tin-cups, we accu- 

 mulated more water than we needed for night and next morning. Just before night 

 the clouds broke and there stood the grand old peak of the "Rucillo" — the silvery 

 headed — directly in front of us, but at least four thousand feet higher. It was all of 

 a hard day's climb off yet, judging from our experience ; my men, discoiu'aged by 

 tliQ, hard labor and dreading thirst from the certain absence of water higher up, were 

 grumbling, ready to mutiny, and I was forced to admit that if I went, it would prob- 

 ably have to l)e alone. I was thei-efore obliged reluctantly to announce that next day 

 we would turn back. At 6 p. m. the barometer read 24.542, with the attached ther- 

 mometer at 60.5 and the detached 61, and before morning we had the unwonted 

 temperature of 47° on the night of June 1st. The night before, at the Cienega, the 

 barometer had recorded 26.758, with both thermometers at 71, showing that we had, 

 in a whole day, climbed only a trifle over 2,000 feet, besides crawling a couple of 



