430 NOTES OF A BOTANIST chap. 
[This is probably the steep conical mountain shown 
to the right of the tall tree in the drawing. — Ed.] 
I had been deceived by false information of the 
distance, and calculated on returning to Sta. Isabel 
before sundown. Instead of this, though we started 
just after sunrise, it took us till after midday to 
reach a cuniico at the base of the cerro. In this 
space we crossed streamlets forty - three times, 
without including the pools of standing water in 
which we sometimes walked a quarter of an hour 
together, for the forest where the ground was 
lowest was almost turned into a lake. Poles had 
been laid across most of the canos, but some were 
rotted away and nearly all were covered with water, 
so that it was critical work traversing them. We 
crossed the cano Uaranaka three or four times, once 
with water up to the waist. It was the only con- 
siderable stream of water we encountered. 
After reposing for a while, we started for the 
cerro, but without any hope of reaching a height 
where good plants might be expected. We crossed 
a low hill and descended a steep valley, and then 
commenced ascending the slope of the mountain, 
which seemed to continue uninterrupted and clad 
with lowish forest till about midway, where (as 
could be seen from below) there began to appear 
abrupt exposed rock. We continued along more 
than an hour, but there was nothing in flower, and 
I saw scarcely any trees which I did not already 
know. The soil was dry, yet a good many ferns 
began to appear, consisting solely of two tall 
species, one or both of which I had previously 
gathered. It came on to rain, and a thunderstorm 
was brewing up to the northward of the cerro, so 
