Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

140
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
my people advancing,
and conducted them to the
site I had chosen for our resting-place.
The road had been gently descending for most
of the day and was not so gravelly as yesterday,
while much sloppy ground had to be passed.
again
June 1 7. A shower at 3 A.M. At daybreak rain
came on and continued without intermission
till near noon, when we set off. We had gone for
scarcely two hours when we reached the large
stream called Piiyu, a tributary of the Pastasa, and
found it so swollen that there was no hope of crossing
it ; we
must therefore again set to and construct
ranchos, and there await the river subsiding. My
chagrin at this delay was somewhat lessened by the
circumstance of finding myself in the most mossy
place I had yet seen anywhere. Even the topmost
twigs and the very leaves were shaggy with mosses,
and from the branches overhanging the river de-
pended festoons of several feet in length, composed
chiefly of Bryopterides and Phyllogium fulgens, in
beautiful fruit. Throughout the journey, whenever
rains, swollen streams, and grumbling Indians
combined to overwhelm me with chagrin, I found
reason to thank heaven which had enabled me to
forget for the moment ail my troubles in the contemplation
of a simple moss. We had hoped to
reach the Jibaros settlement this day. The
chacras were said to be near, and two of our men
swam across the river Puyu and before nightfall
returned with plantains.
June 1 8. Slight showers before daybreak, but
the river had sufficiently abated to allow of our
passing it, and at 6 A.M. \ve started. On the
opposite side we were not long in coming on large