. A flying trip to the tropics. A record of an ornithological visit to the United States of Colombia, South America and to the island of Curaçao, West Indies, in the year 1892 . rry back freight, butthe greater part brought down bales of hides or bags of coffee. We finally mounted and started off shortly after eleven, leavingthe baggage to follow on. Alice and I rode horses; the rest weremounted on mules. The saddle, bridle, etc., are spoken of collec-tively in Spanish as la montura. Our saddles had large horns,and were furnished with breast-straps as w^ell as with both crupper 88 A FLYING TRI
. A flying trip to the tropics. A record of an ornithological visit to the United States of Colombia, South America and to the island of Curaçao, West Indies, in the year 1892 . rry back freight, butthe greater part brought down bales of hides or bags of coffee. We finally mounted and started off shortly after eleven, leavingthe baggage to follow on. Alice and I rode horses; the rest weremounted on mules. The saddle, bridle, etc., are spoken of collec-tively in Spanish as la montura. Our saddles had large horns,and were furnished with breast-straps as w^ell as with both crupper 88 A FLYING TRIP TO THE TBOPICS. and breeching. The bridles and bits were very heavy, the stirrupsof brass and shaped hke a Turkish shpper. The men, when riding,wear enormous spurs and a kind of leggings called zamorras,something like the baggy rubber leggings used among us. Theyare made of canvas, rubber-cloth, or of leather, and are buckledtogether at the waist, thus forming a pair of trousers without aseat. Some that I saw were made of puma-skins. They are sovoluminous that they completely cover the riders feet, and whenhe dismounts they look like an awkward skirt and interfere with. ADJUSTINC; LOAD ON PACK-MULE. his walking. (See page 97.) For the first two miles the road,ascending slowly, ran along the river to the south over what wasonce the besinninof of a railroad. The embankments had washedaway in many places, the cuts had caved in, and at one spot we THE MULE ROAD AND GUADUAS. 89 passed a dilapidated old locomotive rotting away, with weeds orow-ing over the hoiler. This road was to have reached Bogota, butthe funds gave out with the first two miles. At the end of thiswe turned in abruptly to our left and began a steep ascent, zig-zagging in and out of the gulley-like ravines that ran down to theriver. When near the crest of the first ridge, the road ran overa rocky surface which seemed to me impassable. It sloped up atan angle of about forty-five degrees, but the feet of the mules
Size: 1715px × 1456px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidflyingtripto, bookyear1895
