ut to remain in a paramo during
the night, even though thus protected, is often a painful ordeal. Only
for two or three months of the year--November, December, and January--
are they inhabitable by human beings; and it is during those months
alone that the huts can be erected or the fuel stored for the remainder
of the year.

The doctor described to me the way in which people suffer:--The highly
rarified air at first occasions great difficulty in breathing, with a
sharp piercing pain at each inspiration; in a short time the person
becomes benumbed in the extremities, owing to his incapacity for
continuing in motion. He is next seized with violent delirium, and in
his horrible paroxysms froths at the mouth, tears the flesh from his
hands and arms, pulls his hair, and beats himself violently against the
ground, meanwhile uttering the most piercing cries, till, completely
exhausted, he remains without motion or feeling, and death ensues. The
only effectual remedy, when a person is thus seized, is to beat him
violently, and to make him drink cold water from the springs found in
all parts of the paramo; but this remedy must be employed immediately
after the first symptoms appear.

Numberless persons have perished in this way. A short time before our
journey, of a large body of troops attempting to pass through a paramo
more than half died; as did some thousand horses and mules intended for
the use of Bolivar's army.

After the account I had heard from the doctor, I begged of Kanimapo that
he would not conduct us through a paramo.

"There is no fear of my doing that," he answered; "to-day we shall not
ascend higher than our present position, and we shall remain at night in
a well-watered valley."

We had been for some time traversing a narrow plateau, along the whole
length of which we had to proceed, and where, though the air was
pleasant, not a drop of water could be found. Most of us, therefore,
were beginning to suffer greatly from thirst--the padre and the doctor
had not drunk anything since the previous evening--and would have given
a good deal for a cup of fresh water. The sides of the plateau were so
steep that we could not descend in any part, though occasionally we
heard through the trees the sound of rushing water rising from the
depths below, or coming down from the mountain on the opposite side.
The horses and mules, too, were beginning to exhibit every sign of
thirst,--the mules sometimes showing an