File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17538527974).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo15amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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EXPLORING A SPUR OF THE ANDES 371 We camped this night at 11,350 feet up. The men eagerly cut down clumps of bromelias hoping to obtain water, but all that the leaves contained were a few drops of a liquid mud, utterly unfit for use. Although we traveled steadily for ten hours, I doubt if we covered more than three miles. A few hours after starting on the morning of January 23, we emerged suddenly from the dark forest. Instead of the tall, overburdened trees, there were extensive areas of bushes, evergreens, stunted pines, and plants with thick, round rubbery leaves, interspersed with clumps of tall rank ferns. Beyond stretched the bleak, wind-swept surface of the Garam. The Paramillo region is composed of a series of sharply inclined peaks, the highest of which attains an elevation of thirteen thousand feet, interspersed with ravines and deep fissures. The surface consists mainlj^ of dark sandstone which in many places has been shattered so that a thin litter of the particles covers the fundamental rock. Occasionally a thin vein of white quartz crops out, especially where, as often occurs, the strata stand in a perpen- dicular position. Water is scarce. We dis- covered but one ^small.j trickling brooklet; but at the bottom of one of the crevices several potholes were found, each containing several hundred gallons. At night the temperature fell to 28°, and ice formed in our pails half an inch thick; in the morning the ground was white with frost. The vegetation is of a typical paramo char- acter, consisting of low clumps of frailejones, blueberry bushes and tough grass. In the ravines grow thick bushes and stunted trees, all heavily moss-covered. Birds were extremely scarce and, strange to say, exceedingly wary. The typical slaty finch of Santa Isabel and two species of honey creepers were by far the commonest, followed by a small, slaty tapacolo. Then there were white-throated hummers and flycatchers. The finches (includmg gold- finches), honey creepers, tapacolos, cotingas and flycatchers, seem to belong strictly to the paramo; the hummers, towhees and tanagers it seems come only from the forests below. It is difficult to guess just where this typical paramo bird fauna originated. On all sides excepting a break toward the west, Paramillo is surrounded by ridges, some reaching an elevation of 12,000 feet, the tops of which are covered with dense forest, so that it stands like a mountainous brown island amid the sea of green.
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