I had the satisfaction of seeing, in the house of Don Manuel Mena, before leaving Sandia, a bundle of small branches of the _ychu cascarilla_ (_C. Calisaya, var. β Josephiana_), with leaves and flowers, which had been collected as a tonic medicine for a little daughter of my host. On the 24th of April, late in the afternoon, we left Sandia, and reached the _tambo_, or travellers' hut, called Cahuan-chaca, before dark. The road leads down the ravine, along narrow ledges overhanging the river, which dashes furiously along, in most places between perpendicular cliffs. The path is very narrow and dangerous, but the scenery is superb, and the vegetation becomes richer and more tropical at every league of the descent. One of the Indians traitorously fled on the first day, and my party was thus reduced to three, who were barely able to carry the necessary provisions. These three men proved faithful and willing fellow-labourers. Their names were Andres Vilca of the Oruro _Ayllu_, Julian Ccuri of Cuyo-cuyo, and Santos Quispi of Apabuco. They were fine-looking young fellows, wearing their hair in long plaits down their backs, coarse canvas trousers and shirts. They carry the cargos in large cloths tied in bundles, and placed in other cloths, which are passed over one shoulder and tied across the chest, called _ccepis_. They stoop forward and step out at a great rate; and it is in this way that Indians carry their burdens along the roads, and women their children, throughout Peru. The _tambo_ of Cahuan-chaca is a shed, with one side open, and we slept in company with three Indians and a woman on their way to get in a coca-harvest in the Hatun-yunca, who were living very well on salt mutton, eggs, and potatoes. The river rushing down the valley winds along the small breadth of level land, striking first against the precipitous cliffs on one side, and then sweeping over to the other, so that a road in the bottom of the valley would require a bridge at almost every hundred yards. It has, therefore, been necessary to excavate a path in the sides of the mountains, high above the river, which in some places has a breadth of three feet only, with a perpendicular cliff on one side, and a precipice six or seven hundred feet deep on the other; while, in others, it zigzags down amongst loose stones, where one false step would be immediate destruction. But the scenery continued to increase in beauty, and the cascades were really splendid:-- "A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke, Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go; And some thro' wavering lights and shadows broke, Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below." The river dashed noisily through the centre of the gorge, and the masses of green on either side were toned down by many flowers in large patches, bright purple _Lasiandræ_, orange _Cassiæ_, and scarlet _Salviæ_. I also saw an _Indigofera_ growing in this part of the ravine.