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268 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
depth in some places of 10 feet, and so strait that the traveller, to
save his legs from being crushed, must needs throw them on his
horse's neck. Here and there a large stone sticks out, forming a
high step, in descending which there is risk of both horse and
rider turning a summerset. In the travesias there is a consider-
able depth of black tenacious greasy mould, worn by the equable
step of beasts of burden into transverse ridges (called camellones,
from their resemblance to the humps on a camel's back), with
alternating furrows from i to 3 feet deep. This mould is formed
in great part of the decayed leaves of the Suru, a bamboo
of the genus Chusquea, 1 which forms almost impenetrable thickets,
and whose arched stems and intricate branches, overhanging our
way, much impeded our progress. In such places there was still
a good deal of water and mud, for the rainy season was only just
over in the forest.
At 6000 feet we lost the Wax palm (Ceroxylon andicola, H. et
B. ), which had accompanied us, though growing very sparsely,
from about the upper limit of the Hill Bark. It descends to the
same altitude on the eastern side of the Cordillera. Lower down,
palms began to be tolerably abundant, but of few species. . . .
At a very little below 4000 feet we came out on the first
chacras at Limon, where I almost immediately noted, and with
no small satisfaction, a group of three Red Bark trees, each
consisting of from two to four stems of 30 feet high, springing
from old stools, and bearing a small quantity of fruit. We had
still about two miles of gentle descent to the trapiche (cane-mill)
destined for our habitation, and we reached it early in the after-
noon, in the midst of a dense fog.
The trapiche stood on a narrow ridge running eastward
and westward, sloping gradually on the northern side to the
Chasuan, distant half a mile, and very abruptly, or 200 feet
perpendicular in about 300 yards, to a tributary rivulet on the
southern side. It was merely a long, low shed, and a sketch
of its internal arrangements may serve for that of all the other
trapiches, of which there were about a dozen at Limon. About
two-thirds of its length was occupied by the rude machinery and
adjuncts of the cane-mill. The remaining third had an upper
story with a flooring of bamboo planks, half of it open at the
sides, and the other half with a bamboo wall about 6 feet high,
not reaching the roof in any part of it. This was our dormitory,
and it was reached a. by ladder merely a tree trunk, with rude
notches for
steps. On the ground floor was the kitchen, with a
wall of rough planks of raft-wood, placed by no means in juxta-
1 The Chusquere are bamboos peculiar to the hills, with solid stems, rarely
exceeding 30 feet in height, and not preserving an erect position
for more than
a few feet from the ground.