as close down to the ground as possible, in order that fresh shoots may
grow up. There are various species of the quinquina. One is known by
the name of grey bark, another as the red bark, which is considered the
most valuable. The bark which you see around you is of the latter
species; and the men employed in collecting can each make from one to
two dollars a day. In the more distant forests, however, they have to
undergo great danger in the work. Sometimes they have been known to
lose themselves in the forest and having exhausted their provisions,
have died of hunger. They are compelled also to carry the load of bark
on their own backs, and occasionally a man breaks down under the weight
and can proceed no further, when, if he is separated from his
companions, he has little hope of escaping with life. There are,
besides the species I have mentioned, a vast number of chinchona, though
the bark of some yields little or none of the valuable drug."

As soon as supper was over we retired to our hammocks, that we might be
prepared to set out at an early hour to a more secure spot in the
forest. John and I lay awake for some time, talking over our prospects.
Of course we were very anxious about what might happen to our family;
for though Domingos had evidently not wished to alarm us, we saw that he
was uneasy about them. We also could not shut our eyes to the
difficulties and dangers we should have to undergo; not that we cared
much about them on our own account, but on Ellen's. Though she was a
brave girl, we were afraid that she might suffer from the hardships she
might have to endure in travelling over that mountain region. What our
father had done to draw upon himself the hostility of the Government
party we could not tell. He had, however, always shown an interest in
the natives, and by his just and kind treatment of them had won their
regard. We concluded, therefore, that he was in some way supposed to be
implicated in the outbreak which had lately taken place. At length we
dropped off to sleep.

The rest of the night passed quietly away. I awoke as the grey dawn was
stealing into the hut, and at once turned out of my hammock. I stood
contemplating the wild scene for some minutes, admiring the size and
variety of the trees which rose up in the forest before me. Some had
enormous buttress trunks, which sent down rope-like tendrils from their
branches in every direction. There was the gigantic balsam-t