emperate
zone and the beginning of the torrid tropics. Sugar cane, peppers,
bananas, and grenadillas grow here as well as maize, squashes, and
sweet potatoes. None of these things will grow at Pampaconas. The
Indians who raise sheep and white potatoes in that cold region come
to San Fernando to make chacras or small clearings. The three or
four natives whom we found here were so alarmed by the sight of
brass buttons that they disappeared during the night rather than
take the chance of having a silver dollar pressed into their hands
in the morning! From San Fernando, we sent one of our gendarmes back
to Pampaconas with the mules. Our carriers were good for about fifty
pounds apiece.

Half an hour's walk brought us to Vista Alegre, another little clearing
on an alluvial fan in the bend of the river. The soil here seemed to be
very rich. In the chacra we saw corn stalks eighteen feet in height,
near a gigantic tree almost completely enveloped in the embrace of
a mato-palo, or parasitic fig tree. This clearing certainly deserves
its name, for it commands a "charming view" of the green Pampaconas
Valley. Opposite us rose abruptly a heavily forested mountain,
whose summit was lost in the clouds a mile above. To circumvent
this mountain the river had been flowing in a westerly direction;
now it gradually turned to the northward. Again we were mystified;
for, by Raimondi's map, it should have gone southward.

We entered a dense jungle, where the narrow path became more and more
difficult for our carriers. Crawling over rocks, under branches, along
slippery little cliffs, on steps which had been cut in earth or rock,
over a trail which not even dogs could follow unassisted, slowly we
made our way down the valley. Owing to the heat, humidity, and the
frequent showers, it was mid-afternoon before we reached another little
clearing called Pacaypata. Here, on a hillside nearly a thousand feet
above the river, our men decided to spend the night in a tiny little
shelter six feet long and five feet wide. Professor Foote and I had
to dig a shelf out of the steep hillside in order to pitch our tent.

The next morning, not being detained by the vagaries of a mule train,
we made an early start. As we followed the faint little trail across
the gulches tributary to the river Pampaconas, we had to negotiate
several unusually steep descents and ascents. The bearers suffered
from the heat. They found it more and more difficult to carry their