ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
with earth and with dense vegetation. Extensive beaches 
of grey sand and coarse gravel were passed, until we 
arrived at Port Bermudez, situated at the confluence of 
the Pichis with the Chibbis, a tributary on the left bank. 
Here we found the last of the chain of wireless stations 
which had three iron towers. From that place a tele¬ 
phone and telegraph wire have been installed right over 
the Andes and down to Lima. 
The passage on the Government launch from Masisea 
to Bermudez cost <£7 10s. I heard there that, thanks to 
the arrangements which had been made by the prefect 
of the Loreto Province, the number of mules I required 
in order to cross the Andes was duly waiting for me at 
the foot of that great chain of mountains. 
I therefore lost no time, and on January seventeenth, 
having left the launch Esploradora, proceeded in a canoe 
with all my baggage, intending to navigate as far as pos¬ 
sible the river Pichis, a tributary of the Pachitea, formed 
by the united Nazar at ec and Asupizu rivers. 
The landscape was getting very beautiful, the Sun- 
garo Paro Mountains rising to a great height on the 
southwest. Immense lubuna trees, not unlike pines in 
shape, were the largest trees in that region — from five 
to six feet in diameter. The current was so strong 
that we were unable to reach the spot where the mules 
were awaiting me, and I had to spend the night on a 
gravel beach. 
The next morning, however, January eighteenth, after 
passing two small rapids, where my men had to go into 
the water in order to pull the canoe through, I arrived 
at Yessup, where my mules were awaiting me, and where 
there was a tambo or rest-house, kept beautifully clean. 
The distance by water from Iquitos to Masisea 
was 980 kilometres; from Masisea to Puerto Bermudez 
520 kilometres; from Puerto Bermudez to Yessup 40 
kilometres. 
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