2 18 
EXPLORING FOR CAST1LL0A RUBBER 
trees that hung far over the water. Speaking of the animals, there 
were deer, wild pigs, tapir, tiger cats, and jaguars, but they were rarely 
seen. Evidences of them were plenty, however. Once when we visited 
the llanos (grass plains), we saw where a jaguar had killed a two-year- 
old colt. For birds, there were innumerable humming birds, a great 
variety of song birds, hawks, parrots, buzzards, cranes, grouse, doves, 
two kinds of wild turkeys, and the justly named “fire cracker bird.” We 
saw no snakes, but iguanas and lizards were common. 
The Indians think every kind of snake, and even lizards and tree 
frogs, poisonous. They have, however, what they assert is a sure cure 
for the bites of poisonous reptiles. After being bitten, if the sufferer 
will shut his eyes, reach behind, and select three leaves (any kind will 
do), quickly rub them together, and apply to the bitten part, a cure 
always results. 
Our helpers were in part Indians, descendants of the Aztecs, and 
in part negroes from the Cauca. Of the former was Indolencia, whose 
strange, complaining “monkey call" could be heard for miles. He 
always kept it up when alone in the woods, even if only a few hundred 
yards from camp. Of the latter was Cruz, a tall, loose jointed darkey, 
freshly pitted by smallpox. He was the hunter, and was equipped with 
a muzzle loading “gaspipe" gun with a percussion lock. It was worth 
going miles to see him flush a turkey, locate the tree in which it alighted, 
steal within range, and then snap cap after cap, until finally the gun 
went off and the turkey dropped, oftentimes getting away even then. 
As it would be impossible to examine carefully the whole of the 
eight hundred square miles in the month allotted to it, we first got the 
general lav of the land, then laid out trips through typical sections, 
estimated their areas, and computed the number of trees. From Rio 
Negro camp (about two hundred and fifty feet above sea level) trails 
were cut north, south, east, and west. Then came long, hard tramps, 
counting and measuring trees in typical blocks, and much questioning of 
native rubber cutters for a fair estimate of the conditions that obtained 
elsewhere. One fact soon impressed itself upon me. The Castilloa was 
certainly better adapted to flourish there than any other of the native 
trees. In spite of the war of extermination that had been previously 
waged against it, it was more abundant, than any other single tree. It 
often happened that a group of from forty to fifty could be counted from 
the frail, and it was a rare experience to go twenty-five feet in the lower 
forest without seeing at least one tree. While many of them were lofty, 
few were more than eight or ten inches in diameter. The very largest 
