P. PEARSON 1955 Stuffed at 6:30 am mid-river led with rainbow hummingbird, thunderstorm, sprinkle of rain here. Down the flash floods; set some traps - a little over 1/2 day before it got dark. at altitude 11,000 ft. Big Schinus trees. 30 mi. WNW Cotagaita. Sept 22th Only one mouse in traps, a brownpy. About half of them springy empty - probably October . Off downstream at 6:30 am. In 3 hours forded the Rio Blanco 90 times. Forced 100 crossings in first 35 miles, and some of the fords deep enough to drown a passenger car. Not much change in vegetation; fruit trees in bloom but not ripen until Feb. + March. Cotagaita about 11 am; welcomed by officials as though I were the first car in weeks. They had to hunt up the key to the office to get the stamp to make my Hoja de Ruta. Then about 4 hours to Topiza. Interesting passenger who knew some of the plants and animals. Calls Schinus "molle", hence the species name. Still thorn-tree carton goat country all the way to Topiza, confined in a spectacularly eroded quebrada 1 mi. N Topiza, 10,000 ft. with thorn tree, cardinal carton, low plants, various shrubs, a few clumps of reeds. Lots of rocks. Habitat a bit more open (more open ground between plants) than the good Rio wolfshin country that I have seen so far. Seems to be October here, too. Flota of goats drifted down the canyon just before dark, plus burro looked quite friendly Jacklighting at 8. Heard an October in a patch of low plants but couldn't see him. Poor will.