XII 
IN HUMBOLDT'S COUNTRY 
431 
that I judged it best to return, and we again 
reached the cunuco, having reaped nothing but a 
wetting. 
This mountain could only be climbed to the 
summit (if that be practicable), or even to any con- 
siderable height, by sleeping two nights at the 
cunuco and devoting the whole of the intervening 
day to the ascent. But we had no provisions and 
there was nothing to eat in the cunuco but cassave, 
so that I passed a miserable night, for I had no 
supper and I tried in vain to sleep in a tiny 
hammock of very open texture, shivering with cold 
and tormented by zancudos, which are said to be 
abundant all along the base of Imei. 
We started to return next morning without 
breakfast save a little cassave soaked in tucupi. 
I had torn my naked feet on the previous day and 
I contrived shortly after starting to deepen one 
wound by treading on a sharp stump, so that, what 
with bleeding feet and an empty stomach, I found 
the journey sufficiently toilsome. But this did not 
prevent me gathering such plants in flower as I 
had noted on the previous day. 
There was one large Tiliaceous tree of which 
we could find no individual whose branches were 
accessible, though the yellow flowers and discoid 
prickly fruits everywhere strewed the ground. It 
is of the genus Luhea, and from Para upwards I 
have found these fruits strewed in forests, but 
never in a good state, and never accompanied by 
flowers. 
We got back to San Custodio on the 14th 
