Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

24 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
Most of them were half tipsy, as they had been
preparing rum for the feast of their patron saint on
June 29, and it was with some difficulty we got
The
them embarked on the afternoon of the igth.
actual distance from Chasuta to the mouth of the
Mayo river could be passed
in three or four hours
were it not for the rapids, which are at about equal
distances apart. The second of these is difficult
to pass all the year round, the first is worst when
the river is rather full, and the last when it is
nearly dry. We found the first the most difficult
of approach and ascent, and the last the easiest, but
in all of them it is difficult and dangerous work for
the Indians who carry the cargo across the rocks.
The empty canoes are dragged up with stout
creepers, and though they fill with water they suffer
no injury.
The falls resemble in some respects the first
fall of the Uaupes, but with less water and on
a rather smaller scale, while the whirlpools below
are much less dangerous. The scenery of the
falls of the Huallaga is, however, far more picturesque,
from the steep and lofty mountains
which rise on each side of the river, and the dense
tapestry of mosses on the moist rocks and inundated
branches at the very edge of the water. There is
much similarity in the shrubs and trees growing
about both, though the species are, I believe,
entirely different, and the palm of botanical novelty
must perhaps be given to the Uaupes. The most
the vast abundance of
striking difference is perhaps
Neckera disticka (or an allied
species), forming a
dense beard to branches of trees hanging into the
water, as Hydropogon does on the Upper Rio