that place a
telephone 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 L7
10_s._ 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 17th, having left the launch
_Esploradora_, proceeded in a canoe with all my baggage intending to
navigate as far as possible the river Pichis, a tributary of the
Pachitea, formed by the united Nazaratec and Asupizu rivers.

The landscape was getting very beautiful, the Sungaro Paro Mountains
rising to a great height on the south-west. Immense _lubuna_ trees, not
unlike pines in shape, were the largest trees in that region--from 5 to 6
ft. 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 18th, 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.

[Illustration: Great Sand Dunes along the Peruvian Corporation
Railway to Cuzco.]

[Illustration: Inca Bath or Fountain.]

The distance by water from Iquitos to Masisea was 980 kil.; from Masisea
to Puerto Bermudez 520 kil.; from Puerto Bermudez to Yessup 40 kil.

CHAPTER XXVI

Across the Andes--The End of the Trans-continental Journey

I WAS fortunate in obtaining some excellent Peruvian muleteers to
accompany me on the expedition over the Andes. The trip might have been a
rough one for the ordinary traveller, but for me it was a real holiday
excursion, after the horrible time I had experienced in Brazil. This
notwithstanding the disagreeable weather I encountered during the
fourteen days' rough riding which I employed in reaching the Pacific
Ocean.

I started at once with my pack animals on the trail which has been cut by
the Peruvian Government over the mountains. Rain came down in torrents.
Most of the country was swampy, the mules sinking chest-deep in mud. The
travelling was not exactly what you would call pleasant. Your legs
dangled all the time in water and slush. As that trail wa