TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 117 
stick, and with the point of his forefinger makes 
three broad red streaks from ear to ear, one below 
the eyes, another along the base of the nose, and 
the third below the mouth. This done he no 
doubt considers himself dressed for the day, and holds 
his head a full inch higher. 
May 1 1 [Monday). — After a gloomy but dry 
night, we got under way this morning at 3 o'clock, 
the river having abated 4 feet. The history of 
to-day varies little from that of preceding days. 
The same winding turbid river — in no place more 
than 80 yards wide, and sometimes narrowing to 
40 yards, when the current is stemmed with 
difficulty. 
May 14. — The banks now begin to be pictur- 
esque : cliffs clad with ferns and mosses, a Helicomia 
with distichous leaves and pendent scarlet and 
yellowish spikes; a Calliandra like that at the Pongo 
of the Huallaga, etc. ; tiny cascades falling over the 
cliffs. 
We breakfasted at the mouth of the Puca-yacu, the 
most considerable stream we had seen entering the 
Bombonasa. It comes in on the left bank with a 
strong current — water muddy, reddish. Above 
the mouth of this the water of the Bombonasa 
is sensibly clearer, depositing very little earthy 
matter when allowed to stand ; it is whitish, like 
the Upper Orinoco. 
May 15. — Yesterday at 5^^ p.m. we reached 
Palisada-Zipishko, and remained all night on an 
island, where there was the broadest beach we had 
seen on the Bombonasa. Pebbles begin to be larger 
