while the forests are far more inaccessible, and the journey to the coast is longer and more formidable.

It was the opinion of Sir William Hooker, who gave me the advantage of his valuable advice, that a good practical working gardener should accompany both Mr. Spruce and myself, and he considered this an imperative requirement, in order that they might attend to the packing of the plants in the forests, their establishment in Wardian cases, and have charge of them during the voyage to India. I appointed Mr. Cross, at his recommendation, to act under the orders of Mr. Spruce; and Mr. Weir, who was recommended to me by Mr. Veitch, accompanied me to the chinchona forests of Caravaya.

In employing several agents in districts widely removed from each other, my chief object was to effect the introduction of as many valuable species as possible; but I also reflected on the extreme difficulty of the undertaking, and the overwhelming chances against success which confronted a single-handed attempt. In such wild unfrequented regions all is uncertainty. Along the dizzy paths of the Andes a single false step may dash the fairest hopes, disappoint the most careful calculations. Add to these dangers the probability of obstacles raised by the natives, and it will at once be seen that three independent expeditions materially increased the chances of ultimate success.

By the end of 1859 I had completed all the preliminary arrangements; and there was at length a prospect of securing the successful introduction into India of a plant the inestimable value of which had been felt, and the importance of its cultivation discussed, for twenty years. On December 17th, 1859, we sailed from England, and, crossing the isthmus of Panama, arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru, on January 26th, 1860. Thirty Wardian cases for the plants had been sent out round Cape Horn, and I forwarded fifteen

to Guayaquil for Mr. Spruce's collection, and fifteen to the port of Islay in Southern Peru, to await my return from the chinchona forests. After a month's residence in Lima we embarked on board one of the mail-steamers for the southward, and on the 2nd of March, 1860, we landed at Islay, which is more conveniently situated than any other port for a journey to the chinchona forests of Southern Peru or Bolivia.

CHAPTER V.

ISLAY AND AREQUIPA.

THE port of Islay is the commercial outlet of the departments of Arequipa, Cuzco, and Puno, in Southern Peru; and thus a small town, dating from about 1830,1 has risen up on the rocky barren coast, surrounded by a sandy desert, and shut in from the interior by a range of sterile mountains. The coast consists of inaccessible cliffs, perforated with deep caves by the incessant surge of the ocean, with several rocky islets off the shore. The anchorage is formed by a slight indentation of the coast, and the landing is effected at a small iron jetty clamped to the rocks, under which the swell breaks and chafes with a ceaseless roar. A very steep path leads up the cliff to a custom-house, forming one side of the little plaza, which is constantly filled with droves of mules from the interior. A single street leading up from the plaza, with a few lanes off it, forms the town of Islay; and a brief statement of the trade of this port will give an idea of the importance of the country to which it forms an outlet.

The principal articles of export are alpaca and sheep's wool, vicuña wool, copper, bark, and specie; the total value

1 When it was founded by General La Fuente, then Prefect of Arequipa. -Castelnau, iii. p. 443.

There is anchorage for 20 or 25

vessels in 10 or 12 fathoms; but there is always a rather heavy swell, so that a hawser is necessary to keep a vessel's bow to it, even in fine weather.

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in 1859 being 336,8427., and the value of the imports, consisting chiefly of European goods, is about equal to that of the exports.

The country round Islay is as dreary and arid a waste as the eye could rest on; yet from July to October, when there is the greatest amount of moisture on the coast, the otherwise barren mountains, which rise up abruptly from the desert, at a distance of about three miles from the sea, are green and carpeted with flowers, while the plain nearer Islay is also dotted over with vegetation. This maritime range is called the "Lomas." In consequence of the unusual quantity of rain which fell in the early part of 1860, the Lomas had broken out in renewed freshness in March. The country, close to Islay, was covered with a scattered growth of Compositæ, wild tobacco, Nympha, Oxalis, Salvia, an Umbellifer with a large white flower, Verbena, Heliotrope, a purple Solanum, an Amaranth, and other flowers. It is broken up into abrupt ravines; and, near the foot of the mountains, some of them contain deposits of soil washed down by little streams which flow during the wet season, sufficient to sustain small groves of fig and olive trees, the abodes of numerous flocks of doves. Such is the case in the ravines called Catarindo, Yutu, and Matarani, from the latter of which the water is led in pipes to supply the town of Islay. The guardian of this water-supply is an Irishman, generally known as Juan de la Pila (John of the fountain), an active obliging man, who also follows the trades

of carpenter, cooper, and blacksmith; and to whom we were indebted for much valuable assistance in procuring soil for the Wardian cases, and in giving us the use of his yard.

The soil in the richest parts of these ravines, which had been washed down from the higher slopes of the Lomas, is several feet deep, and appeared sufficiently good to be used for the Wardian cases, in the event of its being found impossible to obtain soil from any more promising locality; and the great number of wild flowers which were growing in it convinced me that it could not contain anything very pernicious.

The formation consists of granite, with veins of very pure quartz; but the plains are covered with large patches of fine dust, consisting chiefly of silica, containing potash and mica, with small quantities of the débris of the rocks associated with the soil, which Admiral FitzRoy suggests may have been the ashes ejected, at some remote period, from the volcano of Arequipa. Near the sea-shore, and about half a mile south-east of Islay, there is a very curious result of the constant action of the waves, in two immense cavities hollowed out of the rock, called the Tinajones (jars). They are circular holes about thirty yards across, and of great depth, separated from the sea by a wall of cliffs not more than four

The analysis of this soil, by Dr. Forbes Watson, gave the following result :-