Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/230

194 gorges and ravines which present magnificent scenery, the long spurs being covered with the richest tropical vegetation to their summits. Here are seen the lovely chinchona trees with their red-veined glossy leaves, and panicles of white flowers with pink laciniæ, emitting a delicious fragrance. Here, too, are many species of Melastomas, especially the Lasiandra with its purple flowers and triple-veined leaves. But the flowering trees and bushes are innumerable, and above the thick foliage are seen the feathery fronds of palm trees. From the loftier mountains waterfalls may be seen in rapid descent until they are lost to view behind the dense vegetation; some in sheets of spray, others like films of lace, but most in a solid volume of moving water, all glittering when the clouds open and the sun throws its rays upon them. These are scenes of unsurpassed loveliness. But in the plains below the view is obstructed by the vegetation growing in dense masses beneath the lofty trees. Only on the river banks there are beautiful views formed by long vistas of tropical vegetation.  It was to the forests eastward of Cuzco that the Incas first turned their attention. To the east of the valley of the Vilcamayu the range of the Andes is cut laterally by the Yanatilde valley, and further east by the long valley through which the river Paucartampu flows. Both the Yanatilde and Paucartampu flow north to join the Vilcamayu, though their previously unknown courses were only traced, for the first time, a very few years 