THE FORESTS OF ALAUSI 241 
got in former years. We started on horseback, 
and a mule carried our necessaries. My counsel 
was to leave the horses, but Bermeo felt sure I 
should not be able to perform the distance on foot ; 
we had gone, however, a very short way when we 
found it necessary to cut our way through the 
forest, for the track had got overgrown in two 
years that no one had passed along it ; nor was 
it possible without wasting a good deal of time to 
open a passage overhead so that a man might pass 
mounted ; I therefore preferred going on foot most 
of the way. We reached the banks of the Puma- 
cocha at an early hour of the afternoon, but the 
ford which Bermeo had passed in former years had 
been destroyed by the falling of a cliff, and in its 
place we found a deep whirlpool ; so with the drift- 
wood along the banks we set to work to make a 
bridge where the river was narrowed between two 
rocks, and when completed carried across it our 
baggage, saddles, etc. Then, after a long search, 
we found a place where we could swim the horses 
over, and by rolling down a good deal of earth and 
stones we made a way for them to ascend on the 
other side. Once across, we selected a site for 
our hut among Vegetable-ivory palms, and thatched 
the hut with fronds of the same. Close by were 
the remains of a platanal, showing that the spot 
had formerly been inhabited, and fortunately still 
bearing a sufficient number of plantains to cook 
along with our salt meat during the two days we 
calculated on remaining there. Our horses were 
taken to the top of a neighbouring hill, where there 
was a bed of one of those large succulent Panicums 
called Gamalote, which afford a very nutritious 
VOL. II R 
