CANELOS TO BANGS 147 
them. Perhaps never a day passes without rain 
on this mountain, and its summit is nearly always 
enveloped in mist, which looks as if it were per- 
manently hung up in the trees. The trunks and 
branches of the latter, and often even the upper- 
most leaves, are densely enveloped in mosses. 
Various species of Plagiochila, Mastigobryum, Phyl- 
logonium, Bryopteris, etc., hang from the branches 
to the length of i to 3 feet, and in such thick 
bunches that when saturated with rain they often 
break off even green branches by their weight. I 
have been told by the cargueros of Bafios that 
when they pass with cargoes through the most 
mossy parts of the Montana after much rain has 
fallen they step with constant dread of being 
crushed by some ruptured branch. I examined 
hastily such mossy branches as had fallen across 
our path, and often found on them a Holomitrium 
and a Bryum, which I never got in any other 
situation. 
We had fortunately fine weather until reaching 
the cross of Abitagua ; after passing this we had 
smart rain all the way down. The descent was 
long and rugged and took us two hours and a half. 
At the base was a stream of beautiful water quite 
like that on the eastern side. On a hill of small 
elevation, called Casha-urcu Prickly Hill," because 
of the ground being strewed with thorny twigs of 
bamboos), rising from the opposite bank of the 
stream, we drew up for the night. 
Jitne 25. — We had heavy rain from midnight ; 
when day broke we prepared for the journey, 
hoping that the rain would pass, but in vain, for 
it abated not till two in the afternoon, when it was 
