Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

136 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP,
by the side of which our course lay
for above an
hour, sometimes crossing it, sometimes plodding
among stones and mud on its margin. At length
we turned away to the right and began to ascend
to a ridge, which gradually runs higher and sharper,
like many such in the Andes, whence they are
called cuchillas (knives).
It separates the valley
of the Tinguisa from that of the Bombonasa. As
we ascended it, we had often on our left a steep
bare barranco of sand -rock and pebbly alluvium,
the Bom-
quite like what I had remarked along
bonasa. At 2 r.M. we had come out on high ground,
nearly level, but still with steep declivities left
and right where a cool wind was blowing. Though
so early, our men declared that there we must pass
the night, because it was the accustomed stoppingplace
on the first day from Canelos, and they set
to work to clear the ground and to collect materials
for ranches. Here, as in most other places on the
way, we occupied four ranches, one for myself and
my servant, and the other three for the cargueros,
who generally chose a site a little retired say,
thirty paces or more from our rancho. The ranchos
were merely a fall-to roof, resting on the ground,
and were erected in this way. Two stout sticks
about 9 feet long were stuck sloping
into the
ground, about 4 to 6 feet apart ; across these were
tied palm -fronds, after the fashion of large tiles,
till the roof had reached the required width, and it
was then secured at an angle of about 45 by
a forked stick stuck in front of each of the two
whereon the roof was framed. The palm-fronds
used were those of two species of Iriartea and of
Wettinia Maynensis. Of the Iriartea, the fronds