Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 85
place to be reached, has been sought to be obtained
by following a ridge separating two streams. The
summit attained, another similar one has been
picked out and reached in a similar manner, often
no doubt with much trouble, and after considerable
entanglement in the valleys. Thus the roads here,
like the first-made roads in all parts of the world,
go straight over the tops of hills, instead of winding
around their base. The dense forest makes the
finding of a way among hills infinitely more difficult
when no compass is used, and it though would seem
more feasible to have sought out a passage along
the watercourses, a very little practice shows the
impossibility of this. Besides that the vegetation
is much ranker .near water, the course of the streams
-not merely their bed, but the whole of the narrow
valley in which they run is so obstructed by large
masses of rock and stones as to be all but impass-
able, and completely so when the valley narrows to
a gorge with perpendicular sides which merely
admits the passage of the stream in an alternation
ot cascades and deep still pools. To avoid a
pongo as these gorges are called one must
climb a mountain-side and then go down again, and
perhaps steep cliffs render descent impossible for a
long distance. Hence it may be seen how,
seeking out the sharp ridge of a mountain, when not
too steep, we really avoid invincible obstructions,
although we have to ascend and descend great
heights. It is true that a little previous survr\
and a little good engineering would smooth down
most of the difficulties that offer themselves, and
have no doubt that good winding mule-road.*
slight inclination, might !>< made in any part
i