426 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
(as one ascends). It is white water, while the Paci- 
moni continues to be black. The latter is slightly 
larger, but both are insignificant streams, swelling 
with every rain, in many places not wide enough 
for a curiara to turn, and in the dry season so 
shallow in parts that the smallish canoes have to be 
dragged over sand. At all times of the year it is 
necessary to be furnished with an axe and cutlass to 
clear away the trees which are constantly falling 
into it. Hardly a day passes without a strong 
squall from the cerros, which never fails to over- 
throw such decayed and insecurely rooted trees as 
lie in its course, and during my stay in the Paci- 
moni I heard frequently the* crash of their fall. I 
was furnished with a cutlass, but, unfortunately, not 
with an axe, as I knew not previously that the latter 
was necessary, and we were put to serious straits in 
consequence, for we encountered two fallen trunks 
stretching across the cano and standing out of it 
I to 3 feet, far too stout to be severed by the cutlass. 
With much difficulty we dragged the curiara over 
them, and with great risk of precipitating the cargo 
into the river, for the dense brush allowed nothing 
to be landed. . . . It is only when the sun is nearly 
vertical that it penetrates the overhanging trees 
and climbers. Logs and branches of trees were 
hanging into the water, and sometimes stones 
covered with large Hypnum, having quite the habit 
of H. riparium^ but more closely allied to the 
common Rio Negro species. . . . 
Starting with the earliest dawn, it was midday 
when we reached the port of Sta. Isabel, and we had 
then a portage of at least two miles through the 
forest to the pueblo. The track was easily found. 
