152 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
anxiously scrutinised all the trees and the ground 
beneath them, in the hope of meeting some edible 
fruit ; but it was not the proper season, and I could 
only find a single tree of a Miconia (Melastomaceae) 
about 20 feet high, with small insipid black berries 
about the size of swan-shot. This I decided to cut 
down the following day, should we be unable to get 
away, and boil up the berries with about a handful 
of sugar which I had still left. Neither I with my 
gun nor the Indians with their blowing-canes could 
meet a single living thing save toads. 
At about four in the afternoon the sun shone out 
among the clouds, and though the river fell not, 
there seemed some chance of its abating before 
morning ; so, that all might be in readiness for this 
desirable contingency, I set the Indians to work to 
get out the bamboos and lianas required for the 
bridges. About a quarter of a mile back from our 
ranchos, and on moist rising ground, are large beds 
of bamboos affording abundant materials for bridging 
the Topo. The old stems are so inwoven to one 
another and to adjacent trees, by means of their 
arched thorny branches, that, though cut off below, 
it is impossible to get them down. On this account, 
stems of a year's growth are chosen ; these are as 
tall as the older ones, but have no branches, only 
spiniform pungent branch-buds at each joint, which 
must be lopped off, or they would wound the hands 
and feet. About 40 feet of the stems is available 
for the bridges ; above this height they are generally 
so much thinner as to be easily broken off. When 
cut down and trimmed, each man drags one to the 
river's brink, which is no easy task over ground 
where there are so many obstructions ; and in the 
