24 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
Most of them were half tipsy, as they had been 
preparing rum for the feast of their patron saint on 
June 29, and it was with some difficulty we got 
them embarked on the afternoon of the 19th. The 
actual distance from Chasuta to the mouth of the 
Mayo river could be passed in three or four hours 
were it not for the rapids, which are at about equal 
distances apart. The second of these is difficult 
to pass all the year round, the first is worst when 
the river is rather full, and the last when it is 
nearly dry. We found the first the most difficult 
of approach and ascent, and the last the easiest, but 
in all of them it is difficult and dangerous work for 
the Indians who carry the cargo across the rocks. 
The empty canoes are dragged up with stout 
creepers, and though they fill with water they suffer 
no injury. 
The falls resemble in some respects the first 
fall of the Uaupes, but with less water and on 
a rather smaller scale, while the whirlpools below 
are much less dangerous. The scenery of the 
falls of the Huallaga is, however, far more pic- 
turesque, from the steep and lofty mountains 
which rise on each side of the river, and the dense 
tapestry of mosses on the moist rocks and inundated 
branches at the very edge of the water. There is 
much similarity in the shrubs and trees growing 
about both, though the species are, I believe, 
entirely different, and the palm of botanical novelty 
must perhaps be given to the Uaupes. The most 
striking difference is perhaps the vast abundance of 
Neckera disticha (or an allied species), forming a 
dense beard to branches of trees hanging into the 
water, as Hydropogon does on the Upper Rio 
