Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

86 NOTES OF A BOTANIST
mountains I have yet seen ;
but
here, where not
even spade or pickaxe are used, much less has it
ever been attempted to move a rock by gunpowder,
what can be expected ? All that is generally done
is to clear away the forest with axe and cutlass, and
that often imperfectly, stumps of trees being often
left some inches above the ground, while the
branches and twiners overhead are cut away only
to such a height as may be reached by an Indian,
so that a tall horseman has to look out continually
to save his head from entanglement. Rarely is any
attempt made to level the road with a rude hoe, and
the tropical rains are left to smooth or furrow it
according to the locality. In steep hollow ascents
logs are sometimes laid across, against which sand
accumulates with the rains, and thus'a sort of stair
is formed. The idea of a cutting along the face of
a declivity, or even the rudest bridge over the
streams, never occurs to any one. No one is
and it is
charged with the repair of the highways,
only once a year that the inhabitants of the pueblos
clear the portions allotted to them, cutting away the
brush that has accumulated. When a tree has fallen
across the track, those who next pass that way make
a fresh track through the forest around the fallen
mass as best they may, for they rarely carry with
them axes, or have time to spend an hour or two
in clearing the road. Those who follow enlarge the
track with their cutlasses, and thus one is continually
coming on narrow and difficult turns.
The principal road in is Maynas that leading
from Tarapoto to Moyobamba,. and thence to
Chachapoyas. As far as Moyobamba it is just
practicable for horsemen, who, however, have to