Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

IN THE CINCHONA FORESTS 271
to be seen in the bottom of the valleys a fine-grained ferruginous
sandstone of a deep brown colour, in thick strata, and usually in
large detached masses, lying either horizontally or variously tilted
up. I suppose, therefore, that, so far from having been deposited
over the trachyte, it is merely the remains of a large bed of rock
which once extended conformably over the whole region, and has
been shivered and dislocated by the upheaval of the trachyte
itself. It seems the same sort of rock as exists about the base of
Tunguragua, and forms the lofty
volcano, where the cataract of Guandisagua comes down at three
bounds from the edge of the snow to the warm valley of Capil, in
cliffs on the southern side of that
which grow oranges and the sugar-cane. I have never been able
to find any trace of fossils in this rock. . . . Nowhere in the
Quitonian Andes have I seen the stratified rocks limestones,
friable sandstones, and fossiliferous shales all, I believe, belonging
to the lias formation, which constitute the eastern declivity of
the Andes of Peru, or, at least, of the Province of Maynas. No
Bark tree was seen growing on rock of any kind. The soil at
Lirnon is the same deep loamy alluvial deposit, with very few
stones intermixed, as we had seen from Llullundengo downwards,
nor does a bit of rock crop out in the whole of the descent. . . .
The n.orthern and eastern sides of the trees had borne most
(lowers, and, except on one tree of more open growth than the
rest, scarcely a capsule ripened on their southern and western
sides. These phenomena are explained by the fact that, in the
summer season, the trees receive most sun from the east and
north, for the mornings are generally clear and afternoons are almost invariably foggy, and the
sunny, whilst the
sun's declination
is northerly. Another notable circumstance is that the trees
standing in open ground -pasture, cane -
field, etc.- are far
healthier and more luxuriant than those growing in the forest,
where they are hemmed in and partially shaded by other trees,
and that, while many of the former had flowered freely, the latter
were, without exception, sterile. This plainly shows that, although
the Red Bark may need shade whilst young and tender, it iv,ill\
requires (like most trees) plenty of air, light, and room wherein to
develop its proportions.
The cascarilleros have found out that the bark is worth money,
but neither they nor the greater part of the inhabitants of Ecuador
have any correct idea of the use that is made of it in foreign
countries; the prevalent opinion being that a permanent coffee- or
chocolate-coloured dye (still a desideratum in Ecuador) is extracted
from it. I explained to the people of Limon how it yielded the
precious quinine which was of such vast use in medicine: but I
afterwards heard them saying one to another, "It is all very line
tor him to stuff us with such a tale of ; course //< won't tell us how