XVIII 
CANELOS TO BANOS 
143 
absolutely refused to stir a step further unless I 
would lighten my cargoes. They had received 
their pay beforehand and I was therefore com- 
pletely in their hands. I had brought from Tara- 
poto a boxful of drying paper, and on our way up 
the rivers I had dried a sprig or two of everything 
accessible, and especially of Cryptogami, by placing 
them in paper under my mattress in the canoe. 
At Puca-yacu, fearful of increasing the weight of my 
cargoes, I limited my collections to mosses. The 
only way of lightening my cargoes was to throw 
away all the paper not occupied by plants, and then 
divide the remainder of the effects nearly equally 
among my five boxes. This I did — with a heavy 
heart — for I knew I should have much difficulty in 
replacing the paper when I got out into the Sierra. 
The savages made a bonfire of my precious drying- 
paper and danced round it ! 
Sunday the 21st. — The sun shone out in the 
morning, and we were gratified by the day holding 
out dry and hot. We waited, however, till the 
following morning to give time for the forest to dry 
a little. Early on the 22nd we resumed our 
journey. I had gathered small quantities of many 
interesting mosses in the Jibaria, chiefiy on logs 
in the platanal by the convent, and on trees in the 
forest by the Piiyu ; of these I made small bundles, 
putting alternate layers of Mosses and Hepaticae so 
that there might be no confusion of fallen lids and 
calyptras, and dried them in the sun and by the fire. 
The same plan I followed through the remainder 
of the journey, depositing such mosses as I could 
snatch from the branches in a bag hung at my side, 
when we halted for the night tying them up in 
