Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

234 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
bearing numerous spikes of lilac or violet flowers ;
and farther down the latter grew so abundantly that
it covered the whole hill-side with a mass of aromatic
flowers, which was an agreeable change from the
sterile paramo. The road ran parallel
to the
Pumachaca, but at a vast height above it. It was
well on in the afternoon when we reached the
village of Ticsan, still in the cool region, and, as we
calculated on finding more comfortable quarters in
Alausi, which was two leagues ahead, we resolved
to try to reach it, which we accomplished just after
nightfall, having in the day made ten leagues.
With some trouble we succeeded in getting a little
food for ourselves ; but food for our beasts was of
more importance, and we could get none. At
4 o'clock the following morning I roused my people
and sent them out to the neighbouring farms in
quest of alfalfa (lucerne). They returned bringing
a mule-load, which, though an insufficient quantity,
was better than none, and we delayed our journey
until 8 o'clock in order that the poor animals might
eat, for we had this day only five leagues before us.
Our road now turned to the right, while that
to Cuenca continues southward and crosses the
elevated ridge of Azuay. We still followed the
course of the Pumachaca, which gradually turns
westward, and bursts through the Cordillera in a
gorge so deep and narrow that with difficulty has a
narrow path been cut along the declivity on the
southern side. The whole five leagues from Alausi
to Chiinchi consists of steep ascents and descents,
and of perilous crossings of precipitous slopes, not
for the track is in
many places so narrow that two persons mounted
to be passed without a shudder ;