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90 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
also made numerous expeditions to the mountains
which surround Tarapoto, especially on the north,
east, and west, as well as along the banks, up the
valleys, and through the streams and
gorges of the numerous
rivers that issue from them into the
pampa of Tarapoto. If the difficulties along the
beaten tracks \vere often great, it may be imagined
what they were when he had to penetrate these
almost untrodden mountains and valleys, densely
covered with virgin forest, and for the most .part
rarely or never visited by any of the inhabitants oi
the surrounding country. Owing to the almost
complete absence of any
journeys, I can only give
account of these various
a bare enumeration of
them, with a few scattered notes on some of their
features where such exist.
During the first month of his residence (June to
July 1855) we have only the note --" Collecting
near Tarapoto." This no doubt means within the
limits of a day's walk, which would take him over
nearly the whole surface of the pampa. From
various notes and scattered remarks we learn
that although this pampa had been more or less
completely cleared of its original virgin forest, and
cultivated for more than a hundred years, yet strips
and patches of the original vegetation remained
along the steep banks of the numerous rivers and a
few other precipitous or rocky portions, while con-
siderable tracts had reverted to second -
growth
woods, mostly of shrubs and low trees, thus furnish-
ing work for the plant-collector at the flowering
seasons of the various kinds of plants.
We accordingly
find a similar note for the month of September,
then in January 1856, again in July and