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CANELOS TO BANGS 143
absolutely refused to stir a step
further unless I
would lighten my cargoes. They had received
their pay beforehand and I was therefore com-
from Tara-
pletely in their hands. I had brought
poto a boxful of drying paper, and on our way up
the rivers I had dried a sprig or two of everything
accessible, and especially of Cryptogami, by placing
them in paper under my mattress in the canoe.
At Puca-yacu, fearful of increasing the weight of my
cargoes, I limited my collections to mosses. The
only way of lightening my cargoes was to throw
away all the paper not occupied by plants, and then
divide the remainder of the effects nearly equally
among my five boxes. This I did with a heavy
heart for I knew I should have much difficulty in
replacing the paper when I got
out into the Sierra.
The savages made a bonfire of my precious drying-
paper
Sunday
and danced round it !
the 21.57'.- -The sun shone out in the
morning, and we were gratified by the day holding
out dry and hot. We waited, however, till the
following morning to give time for the forest to dry
a little. Early on the 22nd we resumed our
journey. I had gathered small quantities of many
interesting mosses in the Jibaria, chiefly on logs
in the platanal by the convent, and on trees in the
forest by the Piiyu ; of these I made small bundles,
putting alternate layers of Mosses and Hepaticae so
that there might be no confusion of fallen lids and
calyptras, and dried them in the sun and by the fire.
The same plan I followed through the remainder
of the journey, depositing such mosses as I could
snatch from the branches in a bag hung at my side,
when we halted for the night tying them up in