miles away a big Octodon or Octodontmys (big, grey, long tail with black brush at end). Could almost touch him. Sept. 21 5 Rh Jermini and 2 rusty Bolomyx. At least 15 traps spring empty by Octodon. Two of them had points of cactus in them, one of the points half eaten. This is the roast with the white urine, it's the wood lot of this area. As the result of a great confusion of information & misinterpret- ion about roads from Uyuni to Tarija, I find myself centered in the center of a 200-yard wide boulder-strewn river bed 6 1/2 hours out of Uyuni, including one hour stuck in the mud. Almost certainly I took the wrong odine, because [illegible] I have been wading down creek bottoms much of the afternoon and my host 2 hitchhikers tell me this is the Rio Blanco I am descending and that the town of Rio Blanco is 50 km. downstream. The road went from Uyuni to Luloengo, then west of Cero Chino, near Cero Tamao, then disappeared into creek bottoms. Much space Pampea near Chino, salty, stony, scattered short tela meniscous virenia but scattered and not (tetron 12500 + 13,000?) many mes cheered bands. No obvious young. Bare eroded hills with very sparse tela; and practically no people. As uninhabited as any part of the altiplano I know. My cars on the road. Asked one of my 3 hitchhikers how many cars a day went by, and he said once a week. The river bottom now is beginning to get "goaty" with a mixture of bushier cactus (low and cardon-like), and a fairly big thorn tree 12 ft tall and 8 inches down. Practically no grass, a few houses now - but more upstream. General situation almost identical with the Californian road that I decided not to ascend.