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2 ;o
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
provoking, for the seeds were far from ripe, and all the rest might
be destroyed in the same way, so I immediately went round to
the inhabitants and informed them that the seeds would be of no
value to me unless I gathered them myself; and I offered a
gratuity to the owners of the chacras where there were trees in
fruit to allow no one to approach the trees except myself and Dr.
Taylor. This had the desired effect, and I do not think a single
capsule was molested afterwards.
Whilst Dr. Taylor was at Yentanas, the troops of the Provisional
Government of Quito began to march down from the
Sierra to attack the forces which held the low country, and they
selected the route by Limon and Ventanas, along which an army
had never been known to pass. For six weeks we were kept in
continual alarm by the passing of troops, and it needed all our
vigilance to prevent our horses and goods being stolen ; indeed,
one of my horses was carried off, though I afterwards recovered
it. It was now clear that, unless there had been two of us, both
independent of the political feuds of the country, the enterprise
must have fallen through. All our provisions had to be procured
from Guaranda, and, as they soon deteriorated in a moist, warm
climate, whenever our stock got low Dr. Taylor had to take my
horses and an Indian and go all the long distance to Guaranda to
fetch more. . . . About half a day's journey down the valley
there were a good many plantains on a deserted farm, and at
twice the distance a negro had a fine plantation of them, from
which I two or three times got up a mule-load; but the hungry
soldiery soon made an end of them, and then even that resource
was cut off.
The view from Limon takes in a vast extent of country, both
upwards and downwards, and the whole is unbroken forest, save
towards the source of the Chasuan, where a lofty ridge rises above
the region of arborescent vegetation and is crowned by a small
breadth of grassy paramo. Nowhere are there any bare precipices,
and a very steep declivity forming an angle of 60 with the
horizon, appearing far away up the Chasuan, is as densely wooded
as any other part. The opening at Limon, it will be understood,
is purely artificial.
The crystalline waters of the Chasuan and its tributaries, in
that part of their course where the Red Bark grows, run over a
black or dull blue, shining, and very compact trachyte, which
would seem to be the foundation of the Quitonian Andes, for it
on both the eastern
appears almost everywhere in the lower valleys,
and western declivities. In the river Pastasa it occurs at from
3000 up to 7000 feet. Generally it is exposed to view only in the
bed of the streams, or on their banks, where it often rises into
rugged and fantastic cliffs. Over the trachyte at Limon there is