e forest collecting the
latex.

We arrived there on a feast day--they have more feast days than working
days in the week in that country--and the streets were alive with monks
and soldiers, the only men who do not go collecting rubber. Women and
girls, in flesh-coloured stockings and lace mantillas, flocked out of the
church, each carrying a small carpet which they used to prevent spoiling
their finery when kneeling down.

On leaving Condamano we came to the north-westerly end of the range we
had seen the day before. It ended abruptly in almost vertical walls of
yellow sandstone of various shades. The range was thickly wooded on its
summit. The opposite bank of the river was absolutely flat.

That evening we came in for a heavy storm, which compelled us to halt
from 6 o'clock until 2.10 a.m. Black clouds had accumulated overhead to
the west. A boisterous gust of wind suddenly caught us, which swept off
our chicken-coop, buckets, and other loose things which were on the roof
of the launch. We were tossed about in a most alarming way, and were just
able to tie up under shelter and make fast to some trees. The wind
increased in fury, and the launch tore up her moorings, bringing down a
big tree on the top of us with a tremendous crash.

[Illustration: The American Observatory, Arequipa, and Mount Misti, Peru.]

[Illustration: On the Peruvian Corporation Railway on the way to Cuzco.]

There was a stampede on board, as everybody thought we had been struck by
lightning. Some of the people were just able to jump on shore, while
other Peruvians, men and women, scared to death by the diabolic clashing
of thunder and the vivid lightning, knelt on the decks and prayed
fervently that we might escape unhurt.

I had a narrow escape, a lighted petroleum lamp which swung above getting
off its hook and falling on my head, upsetting all the petroleum over me.
Fortunately it went out as it fell on me. In the middle of the night we
had a great deal of trouble to make the boat fast once more, the waves in
the river being of great height. The rattle of all the merchandise and
broken crockery on board, the moans of the scared Peruvians, with the
howling of the wind, made a regular pandemonium.

When we proceeded up the river next morning we came upon more interesting
islands in course of formation. We saw quantities of _cana baraba_, wild
cane, with its fan-disposed, elongated leaves. The natives used the reeds
for walling their house