2.54- (p| UC-NRLF B 3 M2D fl2fl BANCROFT LIBRARY •0- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA lsas£ DOUBLE MUMBER -HSBHWff- &% ^^^^^SSS^SS^^S^^S^^^^feS^^ZSS^S^ ^ -i nvi 1 § 1 iv THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS f^ ^ | S V^ 1 s & ft 1 C^j S 1 s § i> i ^ ^ fe ^ i \ V k | .X BY HENRY W. BATES K23^^g^^g^^^^^^^S§^^g^^^§^^^^gS^ S NEW YORK S 1 THE HUMBOLDT PUBLISHING COHPANY I K \9 ASTOR PUACE | l^^^^^S§§^^^^^^S^2^§^SS^^S2§^^S32x, y^fyzyZ^o^^^y^y^tttt^^ &2> BNTHRED AT THE NEW YORK POST OKFiCE AS SECOND CLASS MATTBR. A Remarkable Book. — Edward Bellamy. , '«O' f ——————— ^^_^^— _——_«— .i—^^^ii™ THE KINGDOM OF THE UNSELFISH; OR, EMPIRE OF THE WISE. BY JOHN LORD PECK. Cloth, i2mo $1.00. "Should be re-read by every seeker after truth." — Rockiand Independent. " Polished in style and very often exquisite in expression." — Natick Citizen. " The book is interesting throughout, and the more widely it is read the better."— tion." — Twentieth Century. 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Taking the standpoint of science, it attacks the gravest problems of the times with an endeavor to show that the most advanced science will enable us to reach the most satisfactory conclusions." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. "One of the most important recent works for those who are striving to rise into a nobler life, who are struggling to escape the thraldom of the present selfish and pessimistic age. Many passages in Mr. Peck's work strongly suggest the lofty teachings of those noblest of the ancient philosophers, the Stoics. Those who are hungering and thirsting after a nobler existence will find much inspiration in ' The Kingdom of the Unselfish.' "• The A rena. THE HUMBOLDT PUBLISHING CO. 64 Fifth Avenue, New York. f= Bancroft -Bancroft i.lbr»iy PRESERVATKDN COPY ADDED ORIGINAL TO BE RETAINED t- X NOV 2 1992 THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. A RECORD OF ADVENTURES, HABITS OF ANIMALS, SKETCHES OF BRAZILIAN AND INDIAN LIFE, AND ASPECTS OF NATURE UNDER THE EQUATOR, DURING ELEVEN YEARS OF TRAVEL. BY HENRY WALTER BATES, F.L.S., (Assistant Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society of England.) PARTS I. A^TD II. COMPLETE. CHAPTER I. PARA. Arrival— Aspect of the country— The ParS river— First walk in the suburbs of Para— Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the suburbs— Leaf-carrying Ant— Sketch of the climate, history, and present condition of Para. I EMBARKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wal- lace, in a mall trading vessel, on the 26th of April, 1848 ; and, after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the equator, arrived, on the 26th of May, off Salinas. Thin is the pilot-station for vessels bound to Para, the only port of entry to the vast region watered by the Amazons. It is a small village, for- merly a missionary settlement of the Jesuits, situated a few miles to the eastward of the Para river. Here the ship anchored in the open sea, at a distance of six miles from the shore, the shallowness of the water far out around the mouth of the great river not per- mitting in safety a nearer approach ; and the signal was hoisted for a pilot. It was with deep interest that my companion and myself, both now about to see and examine the beau- ties of a tropical country for the first time, gazed on the land where I, at least, eventually spent eleven of the best years of my life. To the eastward the country was not remarkable in appearance, being slightly undulating, with bare sand-hills and scattered trees ; but to the westward, stretching toward the mouth of the river, we could see through the cap- tain's glass a long line of forest, rising appar- ently out of the water ; a densely-packed mas*-; of tall trees, broken into groups, and finally into single trees, as it dwindled away in the distance. This was the frontier, im THE NATURALIST OX THE RIVER AMAZONS. this direction, of the great primeval forest characteristic of this region, which contains so many wonders in its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of the country for two thousand miles from this point to the foot of the Andes. On the following day and night we sailed, with a light wind, partly aided by the tide, up the Para river. Toward evening we passed Vigia and Colares, two fishing vil- lages, and saw many native canoes, which seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls of the dark forest. The air was excessively close, the sky overcast, and sheet lightning played almost incessantly around the horizon, an ap- prop'iate greeting on the threshold of a conn- try lying close under the equator ! The evening was calm, this being the season when the winds are not strong, so \ve glided along in a noiseless manner, which contrast- ed pleasantly with the unceasing turmoil to which we had been lately accustomed on the Atlantic. The immensity of the river struck us greatly, for although sailing sometimes at a distance of eight or nine miles from the eastern bank, the opposite shore was at no time visible. Indeed, the Para river is thirty-six miles in breadth at its mouth ; and at the city of'Para, nearly seventy miles from the sea, it is twenty miles wide ; buf. at that point a series of islands commences, which contracts the river view in front of the port. On the morning of the 28th of May we ar- rived at our destination. The appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the high- est degree. It is built on a low tract of land, having only one small rocky elevation at its southern extremity ; it therefore affords no amp hit heat ral view from the river ; but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the numerous towers and cupolas of churches and convents, the crowds of palm-trees reared above the buildings, all sharply defined against the clear blue sky, give an appear- ance of lightness and cheerfulness which h most exhilarating. The perpetual forest hems the city in on all sides landward ; and toward the suburbs picturesque country houses are seen scattered about, half buried in luxuriant foliage. The port was full of native canoes and other vessels, large and small ; and the tinging of bells and firing of presets, announcing the dawn of sJme Roman Catholic festival day,' showed that the p jpul-ation was astir at that early hour. The impressions received during our first walk, on the evening of the day of our ar- rival, can never wholly fada from my mind. After traversing the few streets of tall. gioomy, convent-looking buildings near the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and shopkeepers ; along which idle soldiers, dressed in slribby uniforms, carrying their xnaskets carelessly over their arms, priests, neg^esses with red water-jara on (heir heads, sad-looking Indian women carrying their naked children astride on thoir hips, and other samples of the motley life of the place, were seen ; ye passed down a long narrow street leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay across a grassy common into u picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. The long street was inhabited by the poorer class of the population. The houses were of one story only, and had an irregular and mean appearance. The windows were with- out glass, having, instead, projecting lattice casements. The street was unpaved, and inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people were cooling themselves outside their Joors — people of all shades in color of skin, Euro- pean, negro and Indian, but chiefly an un- certain mixture of the three. Among them were several handsome women, dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in looi=e slippers ; but wearing richly decorated ear- rings, and around their necks strings of very large gold beads. They hai dark expressive eyes, and remarkably rich heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought the mingled squalor, luxuriance,and beauty of these wom- en were pointedly in harmony with the rest of the scene ; so striking, in the view, was the mixture of natural riches and, human poverty. The houses were mostly in a dilapidated con- dition, and signs of indolence and neglect were everywhere visible. The wooden pal- ings which surrounded the weed-grown gar- dens TV ere strewn about, broken ; and hogs, goats, and ill-fed poultry wandered in acd out through the gaps. But amid all, and compensating every defect, rose the over- powering be:iuty of the vegetation. The massive dark crowns of shady mangoes were seen everywhere among the dwellings, amid fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and many other tropical fruit-trees ; some in flower, others in fruit, at varying stages of ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their magnificent crowns of finely cut fronds. Among the latter the slim assni- palm was especially noticeable, growing in groups of four and five ; its smooth, gently- curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, ter- minating in a head of feathery foliage, inex- pressibly light and elegant in outline. On the boughs of the taller and more ordinary- looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved parasites. Slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the branches, or were sus- pended in the form of cords and ribbons ; while luxuriant, creeping plants overran alike tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled over palings in copious profusion of foliage. The superb banana (Musa paradisiaca), of which I had always read as forming one of the charms of tropical vegetation, here grew with great luxuriance . its glossy velvety-green leaves, twelve feet m length, curving over the roofs of verandas in the "rear of every house. The shape of the leaves, the varying shades of gre^n which they present when lightly moved by the wind, and especially the con- trast they afford in color and form to the more sombre hues and more rounded outline of the other trees, are quite sufficient to ac- far the cha'tr- of this glorious tree. THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 635 Strange forms of vegetation drew our atten- tion at almost every step. Among them were the different kinds of Bromelia, or pine-apple plants, with their long, rigid, sword -shaped leaves, in some species jagged or toothed ahmg their edges. Then there was the bread-fruit-tree — an importation, it is true ; but remarkable for its large, glossy, dark- green, strongly digitated foliage, and its in- teresting history. Many other trees and plants, curious in leaf, stem, or manner of growth, grew on the borders of the thickets ulong which lay our road ; they were all at- tractive to new-comers, whose last country ramble, of quite recent date, was over the bleak moors of Derbyshire on a sleety morn- ing in April. As we continued our walk the brief twi- light commenced, and the sounds of multi- farious life came from the vegetation around. The whiiriug of cicadas ; the shrill stridula- tion of a vast number and variety of field crickets and grasshoppers, each species sound- ing its peculiar note ; the plaintive hooting of tree frogs — all blended together in one con- tinuous ringing sound — the audible expression of the teeming profusion of nature. As night came on, many species of frogs and toads in the marshy places joined in the chorus ; iheir croaking and drumming, far louder than any- thing I had before heard in the same line, being added to the other noises, created an almost deafening din. This uproar of life, I afterward found, never wholly ceased, night or day : in course of time I became, like other residents, accustomed to it. It is, How- ever, one of the peculiarities of a tropical — at least a Brazilian — climate which is mosl likely to surprise a stranger. After my re- turn to England, the death-like stillness of summer days in the country appeared to me as strange as the ringing uproar did en my first arrival at Para. The object of our visit being accomplished, we returned to the city. The fire-flies were then out in great numbers, flitting about the sombre woods, and even the frequented streets. We turned into our hammocks, well pleased with what we hud seen, and full of anticipation with regard to the wealth of natural objects we had come to explore. During the first few days we were em- ployed in landing our baggage and arranging our extensive apparatus. We then accepted the invitation of the consignee of the vessel t^> make use of his rocinha. or country-house in the suburbs, until we finally decided on a residence. Upon this we made our first essay in housekeeping. We bought cotton hammocks, the universal substitute for beds in this country, cooking utensils, and crockery, and engaged a free negro, named Isidore, as cook and servant of all woik. Our first walks were in the immediate sub- urbs of Para. The city lies on a corner of land formed by the junction of the river Guama with the Para. As I have said be- fore, the forest which covers the whole coun- try extends close up to the city streets ; In- deed, the town is built on a tract of cleared land, and is kept free from the jungle only by the constant care of the Government. The surface, though everywhere low, is slightly undulating, so that areas of dry land alternate throughout with areas of swampj* ground, the vegetation and animal tenants of the two being widely different. Our resi. dence lay on the side of the city nearest the Guama, on the borders of one of the low and swampy areas which here extends over a por- tion of the suburbs. The tract of land is in- tersected hy well macadamized suburban roads, the chief of which, Estrada das Mon- gubeiras (the Monguba road), about a mile long, is a magnificent avenue of silk-cotton- trees (Bombax mouguba and B. ceiba), huge trees whose trucks taper rapidly from the ground upward, and whose flowers before opening look like red balls studding the branches. This fine read was constructed under the governorship of the Count dos Arcos, about the year 1812. At right angles to it run a number of narrow green lanes, and the whole district is drained by a system of small canals or trenches through which, the tide ebbs and flows, showing the lowness of the site. Before I left the countiy, other enlerprising presidents had foimed a number of avenues lined with cocca-nut palms, almond and other trees, in continuation off the Moguba road, over the more elevated an ranee to them in their flight. Next to the birds and lizards, the insects of the suburbs of Para deserve a few remarks. I will pass over the many other orders and families of this class, and proceed at once to the ants. These were in great numbers every- where, but I will mention here only two kinds. We were amazed at seeing ants an inch and a quarter in length, and stout in proportion, marching in single file through the thickets. These belonged to the species called Dinoponera grandis. Its colonies con- sist of a small number of individuals, and are Sniiba or Leaf-carrying Ant.— 1. Working minor ; 2. Working-major; 3. Subterranean worker. -established about the roots of slender trees. It is a stinging species, but the sting is not rso severe as in many of the smaller kinds. There was nothing peculiar or attractive in the habits of this giant among the ants. Another far more interesting species was the iSaiiba ((Ecodoma cephalotes). This ant is .seen everywhere about the suburbs, march- ing to and fro in broad columns. From its habit of despoiling the most valuable culti- vated trees of their foliage, it is a great .scourge to the Brazilians. In some districts it is so abundant that agriculture is almost impossible, aud everywhere complaints are heard of the terrible pest. The workers of this species are of three orders, and vary in size from two to seven lines ; some idea of them may be obtained from nlhe accompanying wood-cut. The true working-class of a colony is formed by the small-sized order of workers, the worker-minors as they are called (Fig. 1). The two other kinds, whose functions, as we shall see, are not yet properly understood, have enormously swollen aud massive heads ; 3n one (Fig. 2). the head is highly polished ; in the other (Fig. 3), it is opaque and hairy. The worker-minors vary greatly in size, some being double the bulk of others. The entire body is of very solid consistence, and of a pale reddish-brown color. The thorax or middle segment is armed with three pairs of sharp spines ; the head, also, has a pair of similar epines proceeding from the cheeks behind. In our first walks we were puzzled to ac- count for large mounds of earth, of a differ^, ent color from the surrounding soil, which were thrown up in the plantations and woods. Some of them were very extensive, being forty yards in circumference, but not more than two feet in height. We soon ascertained that these were the work of the Saiibas, being the outworks, or domes, which overlie and protect the entrances to their vast subterranean galleries. On close examina- tion, I found the earth of which they are composed to consist of very minute granules, agglomerated without cement, and forming many rows of little ridges and turrets. The difference in color from the superficial soil of the vicinity is owing to their being formed of the undersoil, brought up from a consider- able depth. It is very rarely that the ants are seen at work on these mounds ; the en- trances seeem to be generally closed ; only now and then, when some particular work is going on, are the galleries opened. The en- trances are small alid numerous ; in the large hillocks it would require a great amount of excavation to get at the main galleries ; but I succeeded in removing portions of the dome in smaller hillocks, and then I found that the minor entrances coc verged, at the depth of about two feet, to one broad elaborately- worked gallery or mine, which was four or five inches iu diameter. This habit in the Saiiba ant of clipping and carrying away immense quantities of leaves has long been recorded in books on natural history. When employed on this work, their processions look like a multitude of animated leaves on the march. In some places I found an accumulation of such leaves, ail circular pieces, about the size of a sixpence, lying on the pathway unattended by ants, and at some distance from any colony. Such heaps are always found to be removed when the place is revisited the next day. In course of time I had plenty of opportunities of seeing them at work. They mount the tree in mul titudes, the individuals being all worker- irinors. Each one places itself on the sur- face of a leaf, and cuts with its sharp scissor- like jaws a nearly semicircular incision on the upper side ; it then takes the edge be- tween its jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches the piece. Sometimes they let the leaf drop to the ground, where a little hrap accumu- lates, until carried off by another relay of workers ; but, generally, each marches off with the piece it has operated upon, and HS all take the same road to their colony, the path they follow becomes in a short lime smooth and bare, looking like the impression of a cart-wheel through the herbage. It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy diminutive laborers occupied on this work. Unfortunately they choose cul- tivated trees for their purpose. This ant rs quite peculiar to tropical America, as is the entire genus to which it belongs ; it some- times despoils the young trees of species growing wild in its native forests ; but seems to prefer, when within reach, plants import- ed from other countries, such as the coffee and orange trees. It has not hitherto been THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. shown satisfactorily lo what use it applies tiie leaves. I discovered this only after much lime spent in investigation. The leaves are used to thatch the domes which cover the entrances to their subterranean dwellings, thereby protecting from the deluging rains the. young broods in the nests beneath. The larger mounds, already described, are so ex-, tensive that few persons would attempt to re- move them for the purpose of examining their interior ; but smaller hillocks, covering other entrances to the same systeuffcf tunnels and chambers, may be found in sheltered places, and these are always thatched with leaves, mingled with granules of earth. The heavily-laden workers, each carrying its seg- ment of leaf vertically, the lower edge se- cured in its mandibles, troop up and cast their burdens on the hillock ; another relay of laborers place the leaves in position, cov- ering them with a layer of earthy granules, which are brought one by one from the soil beneath. The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are known to be very extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark has related that the Saiiba, of Rio de Janeiro, a species closely allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel under the bed of the river Parahyba, at a place where it is as broad as the Thames at London Bridge. At the Magoary rice-mills, near Paia, these ants once pierced the embankment of a largo reservoir : the great body of water which it contained escaped before the damage could be repaired. In the Botanic Gardens, at Para, an enterprising French gardener tried all he could think of to extirpate the Saiiba. With this object he made tires over some of the main entrances to their colonies, and blew the fumes of sulphur down the galleries by means of bellows. I saw the smoke issue from a great number of outlets, one of which was seventy yards distant from the place where the bellows were used. This shows how extensively the underground galleries are ramified. Besides injuring and destroying young trees by despoiling them of their foliage, the 8aiiba ant is troublesome to the inhabitants from its habit of plundering the stores of pro- visions in houses at night, for it is even more active by night (ban in the day-time. At first I was inclined to discredit the stories of their entering habitations and carrying off grain by grain the farinha or mandioca meal, the bread of (he poorer classes of Brazil. At length, while residing at an Indian village on the Tapajos, I had ample proof of the fact. One night my servant woke me three or four hours before sunrise by calling out that the rats were robbing the farinha baskets ; the article at that time being scarce and dear. I got up, listened, and found the noise was very unlike that made by rats. So I took the light and went into the storeroom, which was close to my sleeping-place. I there found a broad column of Saiiba ants, consist- ing of thousands of individuals, as busy jis possible, passiui!; to aad fro ben*ceu the doo* and my precious baskets. Mast of tho^e* passing outward were laden each with «, grain:; of farinha, which was, in some cases, larger and many limes heavier than the bodies~of the carriers. Farinha consists of grains of similar size and appearance to the tapioca of! our shops ; both are products of the same root, tapioca being the pure starch, and farinha the starch mixed with woody fibre, the latter ingredient giving it a yellowish color. It was amusing to see some of tha dwarfs, the smallest members of their family, staggering along, completely hidden under their load. The baskets, which were on a high table, were entirely covered with anls, many hundreds of whom were employed ia snipping the dry leaves which served as lin- ing. 1 iiis produce the rustling sound which had at first disturbed us. My servant told, me that they would carry off the whole con- tents of the two baskets (about two bushels) in the c./urse of the night, if they were not driven oft' ; so we tried to exterminate them, by killing them with our wooden clogs. It was impossible, however, to prevent fresh hosts coming in as fast as we killed their companions. They returned the next night ; and I was then obliged to lay trains of gun- powder along their line, and blow them up. This, repeated many times, at last seemed ta intimidate them, for we were free from their visits during the remainder of my residence at the place. What they did with the hard dry grains of mandioca I was never able to ascertain, and cannot even conjecture. The meal contains no gluten, and therefore would be useless as cement. It contains only a small relative portion of starch, and, when mixeo with water, it separates and falls away like so much earthy matter. It may serve: as food for the subterranean workers. But. the young or \anad of ants are usually fed by juices secreted by the worker nurses. Ants, it is scarcely necessary to observe, consist, in each species, of three sets of indi- viduals, or, as some express it, of three sexes — uamety, mules, females, and workers ; the last-mentioned being undeveloped females. The pei feet sexes are winged on their first attaining the adult state ; they alone propa- gate their kind, flying away, previous to the act of reproduction, from the nest in which they have been reared. This winged slate of the perfect ma'es and females, and the habit of flying abroad before pairing, are very important paints in the economy of ants ; for they are thus enabled to intercross with members of distant colonies which swarm at . the same time, and thereby increase the vigor of the race, a proceeding essential to the pros- perity of any species. In many ants, espe- cially those of tropical climates, the workers, again, are of two classes, whose structure • and functions are widely different. In some species they are wonderfully unlike each other, and constitute two well-di fined forms . of workers. In ethers, there is a gradation . f individuals between the two extremes. The curious differences in structure and. NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 62ft « habits between these two classes form an in- teresting but very difficult study. It is one of the great p( culiarities of the Saiiba ant to possess three classes of workers. My inves- tigations regarding them were far from com- plete ; I will relate, however, what I have observed on the subject. When engaged in leaf-cutting, plundering farinha, and other operations, two classes of ^workers are always seen (Figs. 1 and 2, page 3). They are not, it is true, very sharply defined in structure, for individuals of intermediate grades occur. All the woik, however, is done by the individuals which have small heads (Fig. 1), while those which have enormously large heads, the worker- majors (Fig. 2)%are observed to be simply walking about. I could never satisfy myself as to the function of these worker-majors. They are not the soldiers or defenders of1 the working portion of the community, like the armed class in the Termites, or white ants ; for they never fight. The species has no sting, and does not display active resistance when interfered with. I once imagined they exercised a sort of superintendence over the -others ; but this function is entirely unneces- sary in a community where all work with a precision and regularity resembling the sub- ordinate parts of a piece of machinery. I came to the conclusion, at last, that they huve no very precisely defined function. ' They cannot, however, be entirely useless to the community, for the sustenance of an idle class of such bulky individuals would be too heavy a charge for the species to sustain. I think they serve, in some sort, as passive in- : struments of protection to the real workers. Their enormously large, hard, and indestruc- tible heads may be of use in protecting them tigainst the attacks of insectivorous animals. They would be, on this view, a kind ol "pieces de resistance," serving as a foil against onslaughts made on the main body of workers. The third order of workers is the most curious of all. If the top of a small fresh .hillock, one in which the thatching process is going on, be taken off, a broad cylindrical shaft is disclosed, at a depth of about two feet from the surface. If this be probed with a stick, which may be done to the extent of 1hree or four feet without touching bottom, a small number of colossal fellows (Fig. 3) ^will slowly begin to make their way up the smooth sides of the mine. Their heads are of the same size as those of the class Fig. 2 ; but the front is clolhed with hairs, instead of being polished, and they have in the middle of the forehead a twin ocellus, or simple eye, of quite different structure from the ordinary C"mpound eyes on the sides of the head. This frontal eye is totally wanting in the ^tiier workers, and is not known in any other kind of ant. The apparition of these strange creatures from the cavernous depths of the mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of the Cyclopes of Homeric fable. They were not very pugnacious, as I feared they would be, and I had no difflculty__in ^securing a few with my fingers. I never saw them under any other circumstances than those here related, and what their special functions may be I cannot divine. The whole arrangement of a Formicarium, or ant-colony, and all the varied activity of ant-life, are directed to one main purpose — the perpetuation and dissemination of the species. Most of the labor which we see per- formed by the workers has for its end the sustenance and welfare of the young brood, which are helpless grubs. The true females are incapable of attending to the wants of their offspring ; and it is on the poor sterile workers, who are- denied all the other pleas- ures of maternity, that the entire care de- volves. The workers are also the chief agents in carrying out the different migrations of the colonies, which are of vast importance to the dispersal and consequent prosperity of the species. The successful debut of the winged males and females depends likewise on the workers. It is amusing to see the ac- tivity and excitement which reign in an ant's nest when the exodus of the* winged individ- uals is taking place. The workers clear ths roads of exit, and show the most lively inter- est in their departure, although it is highly improbable that any of them will return to the same colony. The swarming or exodus of the winged males and females of the Saiiba ant takes place in January and February, that is, at the commencement of the rainy sea- son. They come out in the evening in vast numbers, causing qu:te a commotion in the streets and lanes. They are of very large size, the female measuring no less than two inches and a quarter in expanse of wing ; the male is not much more than half this size. They are so eagerly preyed upon by insectiv- orous animals that on the morning after their flight not an individual is to be seen, a few impregnated females alone escaping the slaughter to found new colonies. At the time of our arrival, Para had not quite recovered from the effects of a series of revolutions, brought about by the hatred which existed between the native Brazilians and the Portuguese ; the former, in the end, calling to their aid the Indian and mixed col- ored population. The number of inhabitants of the city had decreased, in consequence of these disorders, from 24,500 in 1819, to 15,- 000 in 1848. Although the public peace had not been broken for twelve years before the date of our visit, confidence was not yet completely restored, and the Portuguese merchants and tradesmen would not trust themselves to live at their beautiful country- houses or rocinhas, which lie embosomed in the luxuriant shady gardens around the city. No progress had been made in clearing the second growth forest, which had grown over the once cultivated grounds and now reached the end of all the suburban streets. The place had the aspect of one which had seen better days ; the public buildings, including the palaces of the President and Bishop, the cathedral, the principal churches and con- ventsi all seemed constructed on u scale of THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. grandeur far beyond the present require- ments of the city. Streets full of extensive private residences, built in the Italian style of architecture, were in a neglected condition, weeds and flourishing young trees growing from large cracks in the masonry. The large public squares were overgrown with weeds, and impassable on account of the swampy places which occupied portions of their areas. Commerce, however, was now beginning to revive, and before I left the country I saw great improvements, as I shall have to relate toward the conclusion of this narrative. The province of which Para is the capital was, at the time I allude to, the most exten- sive in the Brazilian Empire, being about 1560 miles in length from east to west, and about 600 in breadth. Since that date — namely, in 1853 — it has been divided into two by the separation of the Upper Amazons as a distinct province. It formerly consti- tuted a section, capitania, or governorship of the Portuguese colony. Originally it was well peopled by Indians, varying much in social condition according to their tribe, but all exhibiting the same general physical char- acters, which are those of the American red man, somewhat modified by long residence in an equatorial forest country. Most of the tribes are now extinct or forgotten, at least those which originally peopled the banks of the main river, their descendants having amalgamated with the white and negro immigrants ; * many still exist, how- ever, in their original state 011 the Upper Am- azons and most of the branch rivers. On this account Indians in this province are far more numerous than else w here in Brazil, and the Indian element may be said to pre- vail in the mongrel population, the negro proportion being much smaller than in South Brazil. The city is built on the best available site for a port of entry to the Amazons region, and must in time become a vast emporium ; for the northern shore of the main river, where alone a rival capital could be founded, is much more difficult of access to vessels, and is besides extremely unhealthy. Al- though lying so near the equator (1° 28' S. lat.) the climate is not excessively hot. The temperature during three years only once reached 95° of Fahrenheit. The greatest heat of the day, about 2 P.M., ranges generally between 89° and 94° ; but on the other hand, the air is never cooler than 73°, so that a uni- formly high temperature exists, and the mean of the year is 81°. North American residents say that the heat is not so oppress-. * The mixed breeds which now form, probably, the greater part of the population have each a distinguish- ing name. Mameluco denotes the offspring of White with Indian ; Mulatto, that of White with Negro ; Cafuzo, the mixture of the Indian and Negro ; Curi- boco, the cross between the Cafuzo and the Indian ; Xibaro, that between the Cafuzo and Negro. These are seldom, however, well-demarcated, and all shades of color exist ; the names are generally applied only approximative^. The term Creole is confined to negroes born in the country. The civilized Indian is called Tapuyo or Caboclo. ive as it is in summer in New York Philadelphia. The humidity is, of course,, excessive, but the rains are not so heavy antl continuous in the wet season as in many other- tropical climates. The country had for a. long time a reputation for extreme salubrity. Since the small-pox in 1819, which attacked chiefly the Indians, no serious epidemic had. visited the province. We were agreeably surprised to find no danger from exposure to the night air or residence in the low swampy lands. A few English residents, who had been established here for twenty or thirty years, looked almost as fresh in color as if they had never left their native country. The native women, too, seemed to preserve their good looks and plump condition untik. late in life. I nowhere observed that early- decay of appearance in Brazilian ladies, which is said to be so general in the women of North America. Up to 1848 the salubrity- of Para was quite remarkable for a city lying: in the delta of a great river in the middle of the tropics and half surrounded by swamps. It did not much longer enjoy its immunity from epidemics. In 1850 the yellow fever visited the province for the first time, and carried off in a few weeks more than four per cent of the population. The province of Para, or as we may now say, the two provinces of Para and the Am- azous, contain an area of 800,000 square miles, the population of which is only about 230,000, or in the ratio of one person to four square miles ! The country is covered with forests, and the soil fertile in the extreme, even for a tropical country. It is intersected, throughout by broad and deep navigable riv- ers. It is the pride of the Paraenses to call the Amazons the Mediterranean of South. America. The colossal stream perhaps de- serves the name, for not only have the main river and its principal tributaries an immense- expanse of water, bathing the shores of ex- tensive and varied regions, but there is also- throughout a system of back channels, con- nected with the main rivers by narrow out- lets, and linking together a series of lakes, some of which are fifteen, twenty, and thirty miles in length. The whole Amazons valley is thus covered by a network of navigable waters, forming a vast inland fresh- water sea. with endless ramifications, rather than a* river. I resided at Para nearly a year and a hal f al- together, i eturning thither and making a stay of a few months after each of my shorter ex- cursions into the interior ; until the f>th of November, 1851, when I started on my long- voyage to the Tapajos and the Upper Ama- zons, which occupied me seven years and a, half. CHAPTER II. PARA. The swampy forests of Para— A Portuguese landed proprietor— Country house at Nazareth— Life of a. Naturalist under the equator— The drier virgin for- ests—Magoary— Retired creeks— Aborigines. .AFTER having resided about a fortnight at, THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 631 3Vfr. Miller's rocinha, we heard of another similar country-house to be let, much better situated for our purpose, in the village of Nazareth, a mile and a half from the city, and close to the forest. The owner was an old Portuguese gentleman named Danin, who lived at his tile manufactory at the mouth of the Una, a small river lying: two miles below Para. We resolved to walk to his place through the forest, a distance of three miles, although the road was said to be scarcely passable at this season of the year, and the Una much more easily accessible by boat. We were glad, however, of this early oppor- tunity of traversing the rich swampy forest, which we had admired so much from the deck of the ship ; so, about eleven o'clock -one sunny morning, after procuring the necessary information about the road, we set off in that direction. This part of the forest afterward became one of my best hunting- grounds. I will narrate the incidents of the walk, giving my first impressions and some remarks on the wonderful vegetation. The forest is very similar on most of the low lands, and therefore one description will do for all. On leaving the town, we walked along a straight suburban road, constructed above the level of the surrounding land. It had low swampy ground on each side, built upon, however, and containing several spacious rocinhas, which were embowered in magnifi- cent foliage. Leaving the last of these, we arrived at a part where the lofty forest tow- ered up like a wall, five or six yards from the edge of the path, to the height of, probably, 100 feet. The tree trunks were only seen partially here and there, nearly the 'whole frontage from ground to summit being cov- ered with a diversified draper}' of creeping plants, all of the most vivid shades of green ; scarcely a flower to be seen, except in some places a solitary scarlet passion-flower, set in the green mantle like a star. The low ground on the borders, between the forest wall and the road, was incumbered with a tangled mass of bushy and shrubby vegeta- tion, among which prickly mimosas were Very numerous, covering the other bushes in the same way as brambles do in England. Oilier dwarf mimosas trailed along the pound close to the edge of the road, shrink- ing at the slightest touch of the feet as we j.> tssed by. Cassia-trees, witii their elegant pinnate foliage and conspicuous yellow flow- ers, formed a great proportion of the lower liees, and arborescent aruns grew in groups around the swampy hollows. Over the whole fluttered a larger number of brilliantly- colored butterflies than we had yet seen ; some wholly orange or yellow (Callidryas), others with excessively elongated wings, sail- ing horizontally through the air, colored black, and varied with blue, red, and yellow (Heliconii). One magnificent grassy-green species (Colsenis Dido) especially attracted our attention. Near the ground hovered many other smaller species very similar in appearance to those found at home, attracted. by the flowers of numerous leguminous and other shrubs. Besides butterflies, there were few other insects except dragon-flies, which were in great numbers, similar in shape to English species, but some of them looking conspicuously diffeient on account of their fiery red colors. After stopping a long time to examine and admire, we at length walked onward. The road then ascended slightly, and the soil and vegetation became suddenly altered in char- acter. The shrubs here were grasses, low sedges and other plants, smaller in foliage than those growing in moist grounds. The forest was second growth, low, consisting of trees which had the general aspect of laurels and other evergreens in our gardens at home : the leaves glossy and dark green. Some of them were elegantly veined and hairy (MelastomiB), while many, scattered among the rest, had smaller foliage (Myrtles). but these were not sufficient to subtract much £rom the general character of the whole. The sun now, for we had loitered long on. the road, was exceedingly powerful. The day was most brilliant ; the sky without a cloud. In fact it was one of those glorious days which announce the commencement of the dry season. The radiation of heat .from the sandy ground was visible by the quiver- ing motion of the air above it. We saw or heard no mammals or birds ; a few cattle belonging to an estate down a shady lane were congregated, panting, under a cluster of wide-spreading trees. The very soil was hot to our feet, and we hastened onward to the shade of the forest, which we could see not far ahead. At "length, on entering it, what a relief ! We found ourselves in a moder- ately broad pathway or alley, where the branches of the trees crossed overhead and produced a delightful shade. The woods were at first of recent growth, dense, and utterly impenetrable ; the ground, instead of being clothed with grass and shrubs as in the woods of Europe, was everywhere carpeted with Lycopodiums (fern-shaped mosses). Gradually the scene became changed. We descended slightly from an elevated, dry, and sandy area to a low and swampy one ; a cool air breathed on our faces, and a mouldy smell of rotting vegetation greeted us. The trees were now taller, the underwood less dense, and we could obtain glimpses into the wilderness on all sides. The leafy crowns of the trees, scarcely two of which could be seen together of the same kind, were now far away above us, in another world as it were. We could only see at times, where there was a break above, the tracery of the foliage against the clear blue sky. Sometimes the leaves were palmate, or of the shape of large outstretched hands ; at others, finely cut or feathery, like the leaves of Mimosse. Below, the tree-trunks were everywhere linked to- gether by sip6s ; the woody flexible stems of climbing and creeping trees, whose foliage is far away above, mingled with that of the taller independent trees. Some were twisted Hi strands like cables, others had thick stems 632 THE NATURALIST O^. THE RIVER AMAZONS. contorted in every variety of shape, entwin- ing snake-like round the tree trunks, or form- ing gigantic loops and coils among the larger branches ; others, again, were of zigzag shape, or indented like the steps of a stair- case, sweeping from the ground to a giddy height. It interested me much afterward to find that these climbing trees do not form any particular family. There is no distinct group of plants whose especial habit is to climb, but species of many and the most diverse families, the bulk of whose members are not climbers, seem to have been driven by circumstances to adopt this habit. There is even a climbing genus of palms (Desmoncus), the species of which are call- ed, in the Tupi language, Jacitara. These have slender, thickly-spined, and flexuous stems, which twine about the taller trees from one to the other, and grow to an incredible length. The leaves, which have the ordinary pinnate shape characteristic of the family, are emitted from the stems at long intervals, instead of being collected into a dense crown, and have at their tips a number of long re- curved spines. These structures are excel- lent contrivances to enable the trees to secure themselves by in climbing, but they are a great nuisance to the travei.er, for they some times hang over the pathway, and catch the hat or clothes, dragging off the one or tear- ing the other as he passes. The number and variety of climbing trees in the Amazons forests are interesting taken in connection with the fact of the very general tendency of the animals also to become dimbers. All the Amazonian, and in fact all South American, monkeys are climbers. There is no group answering to the baboons of the Old World, which live on the ground. The Gallinaceous birds of the country, the repre- sentatives of the fowls and pheasants of Asia and Africa, are all adapted by the position of the toes to perch on trees, and it is only on trees, at a great height, that they are to be seen. A genus of Plantigrade Carnivora, allied to the bears (Cercoleptes), found only in the Amazonian forests, is entirely arboreal, and has a tong flexible tail like that of certain monkeys. Many other similar instances could be enumerated, but I will mention only the Geodephaga, or carnivorous ground beetles, a great proportion of whose genera and species in these forest regions are, by the structure of their feet.fitted to live exclusively on the branches and leaves of trees. Many of the woody lianas suspended from trees are not climbers, but the air-roots of epiphytous plants (Aroidese), which sit on the stronger boughs of the trees above, and hang down straight as plumb-lines. Some are sus- pended singly, others in clusters ; some reach half way to the ground and others touch it, striking their rootlets into the earth. The underwood in this part of the forest was com- posed partly of younger trees of the same species as their taller neighbors, and partly of palms of many species, some of them twenty to thirty feet 'n height, others small and del- icate, with stems no thicker than a finger. These latter (different kinds of ^actris) bore- small bunches of fruit, red or black, often containing a sweet grape-like juice. Further on the ground became more swampy, and we had some difficulty in pick- ing our way. The wild banana (Urania Am- azonica) heie began to appear, and, as it grew in masses, imparted a new aspect to the scene. The leaves of this beautiful plant are like broad sword- blades, eight feet in length arid a foot broad ; they rise straight upward, al- ternately, from the top of a stem five or six feet high. Numerous kinds of plants with leaves similar in shape to these, but smaller, clothed the ground. Among them were spe- cies of Marantacese, some of which had broad glossy leaves, with long leaf-stalks radiating from joints in a reed-like stem. The trunks of the trees were clothed with climbing ferns, and Pothos plants with large, fleshy, heait- shaped leaves. Bamboos and other tall. grass and reed-like plants arched over the path way. The appearance of this part of the fore'st was strange in the extreme ; description can- convey no adequate idea of it. The reader who has visited Kew may form some notion by conceiving a vegetation like that in the great palm-house spread over a large tract of swampy ground, but he must fancy it mingled with Jarge exogenous trees similar to: our oaks and elms covered with creepers and parasites, and figure to himself the ground incumbered with fallen and rotten trunks, branches, and leaves ; the whole illuminate I by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking with, moisture. We at length emerged from the forest, or*, the banks of the Una, near its mouth. It was here about one hundred yards wide. T he- residence of Senbor Danin stood on the op- posite shore ; a large building, whitewashed and red-tiled as usual, raised on wooden piles- above the humid ground. The second story was the part occupied by the family, and along it was an open veranda, where people, male and female, were at work. Below were- several negroes employed carrying clay oa their heads. We called out for a boat, and one of them crossed over to fetch us^ Senhor Danin received us with the usual for- mal politeness of the Portuguese ; he spoke- English very well, and after wehadarraiged our business we remained conversing wit Ik him on various subjects4 connected with the; country. Like all employers in this prov- ince, he was full of one topic — the scarcity of hands. It appeared that he had made great exertions to introduce white labor, but had failed, after having brought numbers of men from Portugal and other countries un- der engagement to work for him. They alt left him one by one soon after their arrival. The abundance of unoccupied laud, the lib- erty that exists, a state of things produced by the half-wild canoe-life of the people, and the ease with which a mere subsistence can. be obtained with moderate work, tempt everi the best-disposed to quit regular labor as soon as they can. THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZOJNo. Shortly afterward we took possession of <*«r new residence. The house was a square building, consisting of four equal - sized looms ; the tiled roof projected all round, so as to form a broad veranda, cool and pleas- ant to sit and work in. The cultivated giouiid, which appeared as if newly chared from the forest, was planted with fruit trees and small plots of coffee and mandi ca. The entrance to the grounds was by an iron-grille .gateway from a grassy square, around which were built the few houses and palm-thatched huts which then constituted the village. The most, important building was the chapel of our Lady of Nazareth, wnich stood opposite -our place. The saint here enshiined was a threat favorite with all orthodox Paraenses, who attributed to her the performance of many miracles. The image was to be seen on the altar, a handsome doll about four feet high, wearing a silver crown and a garment of blue silk studded with golden stars. In and about the chapel were the offerings that had been made to her, proofs of the miracles which she had performed. There were models of legs, arms, breasts, and so forth, which she had cured. But most curious of all was a ship's boat, deposited here by the crew of & Portuguese vessel which had foundered, a year or two before our arrival, in a squall off Cayenne ; part of them having been saved in the boat, after invoking the protection of the saint here enshrined The annual festival in honor of our Lady of Nazareth is the great- est of the Para holidays ; many persons come to it from the neighboring city of Maran- ham, 300 miles distant. Once the Piesident ordered the mail steamer to be delayed two days at Para for the convenience of these visitors. The popularity of the festa is partly owing to the beautiful weather that pre- vails when it takes place, namely, in the middle of the fine season, on the ten days preceding the full moon in October or November. Para is then seen at its best. The weather is not too dry, for three weeks Tjever follow in succession without a shower : so that all the glory of verdure and flowers can be enjoyed with clear skies. The moon lit nights are then especially beautiful ; the atmosphere is transparently clear, and the light sea breeze produces an agreeable cool- in ss. We now settled ourselves for a few ninths' regular work. We had the forest on three sides of us ; it wae the end of the wet sea- son ; most species of birds had finished moulting, and every day the insects increased in number and variety. Behind therociuha, after several days' exploration, I found a series of pathways through the woods, which Jed to the Una road ; about half way was the house in which the celebrated travellers Spix and Martius resided during their stay at Para, in 1819. It was now in a neglected condition, and the plantations were over- grown with hushes. The paths hereabout were very productive uf insects, and being entirely under shade were very pleasant for strolling. Close to the doors began the main forest load. It was broad enough for two horsemen abreast, and branched off in three directions ; the main line going to the village of Ourem. a distance of 50 miles. This road formeily extended to Maranham, but it had been long in disuse, and was now grown up, being scarcely passable between Para and Ourem. Our researches were made in various di- rections along these paths, and eveiy day produced us a number of new and interest- ing species. Collecting, preparing our spec- imens, and making notes, kept us well occu- pied. One day was so much like another that a general description of the diurnal round of incidents, including the sequence of natural phenomena, will oe sufficient to give an idea of how days pass to naturalists un- der the equator. We used to rise soon after dawn, when Isidoro would go down to the city, after sup- plying us with a cup of coffee, to purchase the fresh provisions for the day. The two hours before breakfast were devoted to orni- thology. At that early period of the day the sky was invariably cloudltss (the thermome- ter marking T2° or 73° Fahr.) ; the heavy dew or the previous night's rain, which lay on the moist foliage, becoming quickly dissipated by the glowing sun, which rising straight out of the east, mounted rapidly toward the zenith. All nature was frtsh, new leaf and flower-ibuds expanding rapidly. Some morn- ings a single tree would appear in flower amid what was the preceding evening a uni- form green mass of forest — a dome of blos- som suddenly created as if by magic. The birds were all active ; from the wild-fruit trees, not far off, we often heard the shrill yelping of the Toucans (Ramphastos vitelli- nus). Small flocks of parrots flew over on most mornings, at a great height, appealing in distinct relief against the blue sky, always two by two, chattering to each other, the pairs being separated by regular intervals ; their bright colors, however, were not ap- parent at that height. After breakfast we devoted the hours from 10 A.M. to 2 or 3 P.M. to entomology ; the best time for insects in the forest being a little before the greatest heat of the day. The heat increased rapidly toward two o'clock (92° and 93° Fahr.), by which time every voice of bird or mammal was hushed ; only in the trees was heard at intervals the harsh whirr of a cicada. The leaves, which were so moist and fresh in early morning, now become lax and drooping ; the flowers shed their petals. Our neighbors, the Indian and mulatto inhabitants of the open palm- thatched huts, as we returned home fatigued with our ramble, were either asleep in their hammocks or seated on mats in the shade, too languid even to talk. On most days in June and July a heavy shower would fall some time in the afternoon, producing a most welcome coolness. The approach of the rain-clouds was after a uniform fashion very interesting to observe. First, the cool sea-breeze, which commenced to blow about 634 THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. ten o'clock, and which had increased in force with the increasing power of the sun, would flag and finally die away. The heat and electric tension of the atmosphere would then become almost insupportable. Languor and uneasiness would seize on every one ; even the denizens of the forest betraying it by their motions. White clouds would appear in the east and gather into cumuli, with an increasing blackness along their lower por- tions. The whole eastern horizon would be- come almost suddenly black, and this would spread upward, the sun at length becoming obscured. Then the rush of a mighty wind is heard through the forest, swaying the tree- tops ; a vivid flash of lightning bursts forth, thea a crash of thunder, and down streams the deluging ^ain. Such storms soon cease, leaviag bluish-black motionless clouds in the sky until night. Meantime all nature is re- freshed ; but heaps of flower-petals and fall- en leaves are seen under the trees. Toward evening life revives again, and the ringing uproar is resumed from bush and tree. vfhe following morning the sun again rises in a cloudless sky, and so the cycle is completed ; spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in one tropical day. The days are more or less like this throughout the year in this country. A little difference exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but generally, the dry season, which lasts from July to December, is varied with showers, and the wet, from January to June, with sunny da}-s. It results from this that the periodical phenomena of plants and animals do not take place at about the same time in all species, or in the individuals of any given species, as they do in temperate countries. Of course there is no hiberna- tion ; nor, as the dry season is not excessive, is there any summer torpidity as in some tropical countries. Plants do not flower or shed their leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, or breed simultaneously. In Europe, a wood- land scene has its spring, its summer, its autumnal, and its winter aspects. In the equatorial forests the aspect is the same or nearly so every day in the year : budding flowering, fruiting, and leaf shedding are al- ways going on in one species or other. The activity of birds and insects proceeds without interruption, each species having its own separate times ; the colonies of wasps, for instance, cfo not die off annually, leaving only the queens, as in cold climates ; but the suc- cession of generations and colonies goes on incessantly. It is never either spring, sum- mer, or autumn, but each day is a combina- tion of all three. With the day and night al- ways of equal length, the atmospheric dis- turbances of each day neutralizing themselves before each succeeding morn ; with the sun in its course proceeding midway across the sky, and the daily temperature the same within two or three degrees throughout the year— how grand in its perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march of Nature under the equator ! Our evenings were generally fully em- ployed preserving our collections and muk- . ing notes. We dined at four, and took tea about seven o'clock. Sometimes we walked to the city to see Brazilian life or enjoy ih& pleasures of European and American society. And so the time passed away from June lo'L to August 26th. During /l.his peri d we made two excursions of greater length to the rice and saw-mills of Magoary, an establish- ment owned by an American gentleman, Mr. Upton, situated on the banks of a creek in. the heart^ of the forest, about twelve miles. from Pata. 1 will narrate some ot the inci- dents of these excursions, and give an ac- count of the more interesting observations made on the natural history and inhabitants of these interior creeks and forests. Our first trip to the mills was by land. The creek on whose banks they stand, the Iritiri, communicates with the river Para through another larger creek, the Magoaiy -r so that there is a passage by water, but this. is about twenty miles round. We started at sunrise, taking Isidoro with us. The road plunged at once into the forest after having Nazareth, so that in a few minutes we were enveloped in shade. For some distance the woods were of second growth, the original forest near the town having been formeilv cleared or thinned. They were dense an-l impenetrable on account of the close grow tit. of the young trees and the mass of thornv shrubs and creepers. These thickets swarmed with ants and ant-thrushes : they weie also* frequented by a species of puff -throated man- ikin, a little bird which flies occasionally" across the road, emitting a strange noise, made, I believe, witJt the wings, and resem- bling the clatter of a small wooden rattle. A mile or a mile and a half further on, the character of the woods began to change, and we then found ourselves in the primeval forest. The appearance was greatly diff eren 4 from that of the swampy tract I have aireacy described. The land was rather more ele- vated and undulating ; the many swamp plants with their long and broad leaves were wanting, and there was less underwood, al- though the trees were wider apart. Through this wilderness the road continued for seven or eight miles. The same unbroken forest extends all the way to Maranham and in ether directions, as we were told, a distance of about 300 miles southward and eastward of Para. In almost every hollow part the road: was crossed by a brook, whose cold, daik, leaf -stained waters were bridged over by i tee- trunks. The ground was carpeted, as usual, by Lycopodiums, but it was also incumbeied. with masses of vegetable debris and a thick coating of dead leaves. Fruits of many kinds were scattered about, among which were many sorts of beans, some of the pods a foot- long, flat and leathery in texture, others hard as stone. In one place there was a quantity of large empty wooden vessels, which Isidora told us fell from the Sapucaya tree. They are called monkeys' drinking-cups (Cuyas de Maccao), and are the capsules which contain the nuts sold under the names just mentioned, in Covent Garden Market. At the too of the THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 635 Vessel is a circular hole, in which a natural I'd fits neatly. When the nuts are ripe, this Al becomes loosened, and the heavy cup falls with a crash, scattering the nuts over the ground. The tree which yields the nut (Lecythis ollaria), is of immense height. It is Closely allied to the Brazil-nut tree (Berthol- letia excelsa), whose seeds are also inclosed in large woody vessels ; hut these have no lid, and fall entire to the ground. This is the reason why the one kind of nut is so much dearer than the other. The Sapucaya is not less abundant, probably.than the Bertholletia, but its nuts in falling are scattered about and eaten by wild animals ; while the full cap- sules of Brazil-nuts are collected entire by the natives. What attracted us chiefly were the colossal trees. The general run of trees had not re- markablv thick stems; the great and uni- form height to which they grow without emitting a branch was a much more notice- able feature than their thickness ; but at in- tervals of a furlong or so a veritable giant towered up. Only one of these monstrous trees can grow within a given space ; it mo- nopolizes the domain, and none but individ- uals of much inferior size can find a footing near it. The cylindrical trunks of these larger trees were generally about 20 to 25 feet in circumference. Von Martius men- tions having measured trees in the Para dis- trict, belonging to various species (JSympho- nia cocciuea, Lecythis sp. and Crataeva Ta- pia), which were 50 to 60 feet in 'girth at the point where they become cylindrical. The height of the vast column-like steois could not be less than 100 feet from the ground to their lowest branch. Mr. Leavens, at the saw-mills, told me they frequently squared logs for sawing 100 feet long, of the Pao d'Arco and the Massaranduba. The total height of these trees, stem and crowrn to- gether, may be estimated at from 180 to 200 feet : where one of them stands, the vast dome of foliage rises above the other forest trees as a domed cathedral does above the other buildings in a city. A very remarkable feature in these trees is the growth of buttress-shaped projections around the lower part of their stems. The spaces between these buttresses, which are generally thin walls of wood, form spacious chambers, and may be compared to stalls in a stable : some of them are large enough to hold half a dozen persons. The purpose of these structures is as obvious, at the first glance, as that of the similar props of brick- work which support a high wall. They are not peculiar to one species, but are common to most of the larger forest trees. Their nature and manner of growth are explained when a series of young trees of different ages is examined. It is then seen that they are the roots which have raised themselves ridge-like out of the earth ; growing grad- ually upward as the increasing height of the tree required augmented support. Thus they ure plainly intended to sustain the massive crown and trunk in these crowded forests, , where lateral growth of the roots in the earth ia rendered difficult by the multitude of com- petitors. The other grand forest trees whose native names we learned, were the Moira-tinga (the White or King-tree), probably the same as, or allied to, the Mora excelsa, which Sir Rob- ert Schombuigk discovered in British Gui- ana ; the Samaiima (Eriodendron Samauma) and the MassaraLdiiba, or Cow-tree. The last-mentioned is the most reinai kable. We had already heard a good deal about this; tree, and about its producing from its baik a. copious supply of milk as pleasant to dribk. as that of the cow. We had also eaten its fruit in Para, where it is sold in the streets, by negro market wom'^n ; and had heard a good deal . f the duraoleness in water of its timber. We were glad, therefore, to see this wonderful tree growing in its native wilds. It is one of the largest of the forest mon- archs, and is peculiar in appearance on ac- count of its deeply-scored, reddish, and rag- ged bark. A decoction of the baik, I was told, is used as a red dye for cloth. A few days afterward we tasted its milk, which was drawn from dry logs that had been stand ing many days in the hot suri, at the saw- mills. It was pleasant with colfee, but had a slight rankness when drank pure ; it soon thickens to a glue, which is excessively tena- cious, and is often used to cement broken crockery. I was told that it was not safe to drink much of it, for a slave had recently nearly lost his life through taking it too freely. In some parts of the road ferns were con- spicuous objects. But I afterward found them much more numerous on the Maranham road, especially in one place where the whole forest glade formed a vast fernery ; the ground was covered with terrestrial species, and the tree-trunks clothed with climbing and epiphytous kinds. I saw no tree ferns in the Para district ; they belong to hilly regions ; some occur, however, on the Upper Ama- zons. Such were the principal features in the vegetation of the wilderness ; bat where were the flowers ? To our great disappointment we saw none, or only such as were insignifi- cant in appearance. Orchids are very rare in the dense forests of the low lands. I be» lieve it is now tolerably well ascertained that the majority of forest trees in equatorial Bra- zil have small and inconspicuous flowers. Flower-frequenting insects are also rare in the forest. Of course they would not be found where their favorite food was want- ing, but I always noticed that even where flowers occurred in the forest, few or no in- sects were seen upon them. In the open country or campos of Santarem, on the Lower AmaZvms, flowering trees and bushes are more abundant, and there a large num- ber of floral insects are attracted. The forest bees of South America belonging to the genera Melipona and Euglossa are more fre- quently seen feeding on the sweet sap which v exudes from the trees, or on the excrement 636 THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. of bii .Js on leaves, than on flowers. We were disappointed also in not meeting; with any of the larger animals in the forest. There was uo tumultuous movement, or sound of life. "We did not see or hear mon- keys, and no tapir or jaguar crossed our path. Birds, also, appeared to be exceedingly scarce. We heard, however, occasion- ally the long-drawn, wailing note of the Inambu, a kind of partridge (Crypturus cine- reus ?) ; and, also, in the hollows on the banks of the rivulets, the noisy notes of an- other bird, which seemed to go in pairs, among the tree-tops, calling to each other as they went. These notes resounded through the wilderness. Another solitary bird had a most sweet and melancholy song ; it consisted simply of a few notes, uttered in a plaintive key, commencing high, and descending by harmonic intervals. It was probably a spe- cies of warbler of the genus Trshas. All these notes of birds are very striking and characteristic of the forest. I afterward saw reason to modify my opinion, founded on these first impressions, with regard to the amount and variety of an- imal life in this and other parts of the Ama- zonian forests. There is, in fact, a great va- riety of mammals, birds, and reptiles, but they are widely scattered, and all excessively shy of man. The region is so extensile, and uniform in the forest clothing of the surface, that it is only at long intervals that animals are seen in abundance, where some particu- lar spot is found which is more attractive than others. Brazil, moreover, is throughout poor in terrestrial mammals, and the species are of small size ; they do not, therefore, form a conspicuous feature in its forests. The huntsman would be disappointed who expected to rind here flocks of animals simi- lar to the buffalo herds of North America, or the swarms of antelopes and herds of pon- derous pachyderms of Southern Africa. The largest and most interesting portion of the Bra- zilian mammal fauna is arboreal in its hab- its ; this feature of the animal denizens of these forests I have already alluded to. The most intensely arboreal animals in the world are the South American monkeys of the fam- ily Cebidse, many of which have a fifth hand for climbing in their prehensile tails, adapted for this function by their strong muscular development, and the naked palms under their tips. This seems to teach us that the South American fauna has been slowly adapted to a forest life, and, therefore, that extensive forests must have always existed since the region was first peopled by mam- malia. But to this subject, and to the nat- ural history of the monkeys, of which thirty- eight species inhabit the Amazon region, J shall have to return. We often read, in books of travels, of the silence and gloom of the Brazilian forests. They are realities, and the impression deep- ens on a longer acquaintance. The few sounds of birds are of that pensive or mys- terious character which intensifies the feel- ing of solitude rather than imparts a sense of life and cheerfulness. Sometimes, in the midst of the stillness, a sudden yell or scream will startle one ; this comes from some de« fenceless fruit - eating animal, which is pounced upon by a tiger-cut or stealthy boa- constrictor.. Morning and evening the howl' ing monkeys make a most fearful and harrow- ing noise, under which it is difficult to keep up one's buoyancy of spirit. The feeling oi inhospitable wildness which the forest is cal- culated to inspire is increased tenfold under this fearful uproar. Often, even in the still hours of midday, a sudden crash will be heard resounding nfar through the wilder- ness, as some great bough or entire tree falls to the ground. There are, besides, many sounds which it is impossibe to account for. I found the natives generally as much at a loss in this respect as myself. Sometimes a sound is heard like the clang of an iron bar against a hard, hollow tiee, or a piercing cry rends the air ; these are not repeated, and the succeeding silence tends to heighten the unpleasant impression which they make on the mind. With the native it is always the Curupira, the wild man or spirit of the for- est, which produces all noises they are un- able to explain. For myths are the rude theories which mankind, in the infancy of knowledge, invent to explain natural phe- nomena. The Cuiupira is a mysterious be- ing, whose attributes are uncertain, for they vary according to locality. Sometimes he is described as a kind of orang-otang, being covered with long shaggy hair, and living in trees. At others he is said to have clo- ven feet and a bright red face. He has a wife and children, and sometimes comes down to the rocas to steal the mandioca. At one time I had a mameluco youth in my service, whose head was full of the legends and su- perstitions of the country. He always went with me into the forest ; in fact, I could not get him to go aloue, and whenever we heard any of the strange noises mentioned above, he used to tremble with fear. He would crouch down behind me, and beg of me to turn back ; his alarm ceasing only after he had made a charm to protect us from the Curupira. For this purpose he took a young palm-leaf, plaited it, and formed it into a ring, which he hung to a branch on our track. At length, after a six hours' walk, we arrived at our ^destination, the last mile or two hav- ing been again through second-growth for- est. The mills formed a large pile of build- ings, pleasantly situated in a cleared tract of land, many acres in extent, and everywhere surrounded by the perpeiua! forest. We were received in the kindest manner by the overseer, Mr. Leavens, who showed us all that was interesting about the place, and took us to the best spots in the neighborhood for birds and insects. The mills were built & loug time ago by a wealthy Brazilian. They had belonged to Mr. Upton for many years. I was told that when the dark-skinned revo- lutionists were preparing for their attack on Para, they occupied the place, but not the slightest injury was done to the machinery or building, for the leaders said it was against • the Portuguese and their party that they were THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 637 at war, not, against the other foreigners. The creek Iritiri at the mills is only a few yards wide ; it winds about between two lofty walls of forest for some distance, then becomes much broader, and finally joins the Magoary. There are many other ramifica- tions, creeks or channels, which lead to re- tired hamiets and scattered houses, inhabited by people of mixed white, Indian, and negro descent. Many of them did business with Mr. Leavens, bringing tor sale their little liar vests of rice or a few logs of timber. It was interesting to see them in their little heavily - laden montarias. Sometimes the boats were managed by handsome, healthy young lads, loosely clad in straw hat, white shirt, and dark blue trousers turned up to the knee. They steered, paddled, and man- aged the varejaO (the boating pole) with much grace and dexterity. We made many excursions down the Iritiri, and saw much of these creeks ; besides, our second visit to the mills was by water. The Magoary is a magnificent channel ; the differ- ent branches form quite a labyrinth, and the land is everywhere of little elevation. All these smaller rivers throughout the Para es- tuary are of the nature of creeks. The land is so level that the short local rivers have no sources and downward currents, like rivers as we generally understand them. They serve the purpose of diuining the Ir.iid, but instead of having a constant current one way, they have a regular ebb and flow with the tide. The natives call them, in the Tupi language, Igarapes, or canoe-paths. The igarapes and faros or channels, which are in- finite in number in this great river delta, are characteristic of the country. The land is everywhere covered with impenetrable for- ests ; the houses and villages are all on the waterside, and nearly all communication is by water. This semi-aquatic life of the people is one of the most interesting features of the country. For short excursions, and for fishing in still waters, a small boat, called montaiia, is universally used. It is made cf five planks ; a broad one for the bottom, bent into the proper shape by the action of heat, two narrow ones for the sides, and two small triangular pieces for stem and stern. It has no rudder ; the paddle serves for both steering and propelling. The montaria takes here the place of the horse, mule, or camel of other regions. Besides one or more mon- tarias, almost every family has a larger canoe, called Igarite. This is fitted with two masts, a rudder, and keel, and has an arched awning or cabin near the stern, made of a framework of tough lianas, thatched with palm-leaves. In the igarite they will cross stormy rivers fifteen or twenty miles broad. The natives are all boat-buildert?. It is often remai ked, by white residents, that an Indian is a carpenter and shipwright by intuition. It is astonishing to see in what crazy vessels these people will risk themselves. I have seen Indians cross rivers in a leaky montaria, when it required the nicest equilibrium to keep the leak just above water ; a movement of a hair's breadth would send allfo the bot- tom, but they managed to cross in safety. They are especially careful when they have strangers under their charge, and it is the custom of Brazilian and Portuguese travel- lers to leave the whole management to them. When they are alone, they aie more reck- less, and often have to swim for their lives. If a squall overtakes them as they are cios^ ing in a heavily-laden canoe, they all jump overboard and swim about until the het.vy sea subsides, when they re-embark. A few words on the aboriginal population of the Para estuary will here not be out of place. The banks of the Para were origin- ally inhabited by a number of distinct tribes, who, in their habits, resembled very much the natives of the sea-coast from Maranham to Bahia. It is related that one large tribe, the Tupinambas, migrated from Peinambuco to the Amazons. One fact seems to be well established, namely, that all the coast tribes were far more advanced in civilization, and milder in their manners, than the savages who inhabited the interior lands of Brazil. They were settled in villages, and addicted to agriculture. They navigated the rivers in large canoes, called ubas, made of immense hoilowed-out tree trunks ; in these they used to go on war expeditions, carrying in the prows their trophies and calabash rattles, whose clatter was meant to intimidate their enemies. They were gentle in disposition, and received the early Portuguese settlers with great friendliness. The inland savages, on the other hand, led a wandering life, as they do at the present time, only coming down occasionally to rob the plantations of the coast tribes, who always entertained the greatest enmity toward them. The original Indian tribes of the district are now either civilized or have amalgamated with the white and negro immigrants. Their distinguished tribal names have long been forgotten, and the race bears now the gen- eral appellation of Tapuyo, which seems to be one of the names of the ancient Tupinam- bas. The Indians of the interior, still re- maining in the savage state, are called by the Brazilians Indios, or Gentios (Heathens). All the semi- civilized Tapuyos of the villages, and in fact the inhabitants of retired places generally, speak the Lingoa gera], a language adapted by the Jesuit missionaries from the original idbin of the Tupinambas. The lan- guage of the Guaranis, a nation living on tha banks of the Paraguay, is a dialect of it, and hence it is called by philologists the Tupi- Guarani language ; printed grammars of it are always on sale at the shops of the Para booksellers. The fact of one language hav- ing been spoken over so wide an extent of country as that from the Amazons to Para- guay, is quite an isolated one in this country, and points to considerable migrations of the . Indian tribes in former times. At present the languages spoken by neighboring tribe* on the banks of the interior rivers are totally distinct ; on the Jurua, even scattered hordet NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. belonging *> the same tribe are not able to understand each other. The civilized Tapuyo of Para differs in no essential point, in physical or moral qualities, from the Indian of the interior. He is more stoutly built, being better fed than some of them ; but in this respect there are great differences among the tribes themselves. He presents all the chief characteristics of the American red man. The skin of a coppery brown color, the features of the face broad, and the hair black, thick, and straight. He is generally about the middle height, thick-set, has a broad muscular chest, well-shaped but somewhat thick legs and arms, and small hands and feet. The cheek bones are not generally prominent ; the eyes are black, and seldom oblique like those of the Tartar races of Eastern Asia, which are supposed to have sprung from the same original stock as the American red man. The features exhibit scarcely any mobility of expression ; this is connected with the excessively apathetic and undemonstrative character of the race. They never betray, in fact they do not feel keenly, the emotions of joy, grief, wonder, fear, and so forth. They can never be excited to en- thusiasm ; but they have strong affections, especially those connected with family. It is commonly stated by the whites and ne- groes that the Tapuyo is ungrateful. Bra- zilian mistresses of households, who have much experience of Indians, have always a long list of instances to relate to the stranger, showing their base ingratitude. They cer- tainly do not appear to remember or think of repaying benefits, but this is probably be- cause they did not require, and do not value, such benefits as their would-be masters con- fer upon them. I have known instances of attachment and fidelity on the part of Indians toward their masters, but these are excep- tional cases. All the actions of the Indian show that his ruling desire is to be let alone ; he is attached to his home, his quiet monot- onous forest and river life ; he likes to go to towns occasionally, to see the wonders intro- duced by the white man, but he has a great repugnance to living in the midst of the crowd ; he prefers handicraft to field labor, and especially dislikes binding himself to reg- ular labor for hire. He is shy and uneasy before strangers, but if they visit his abode, he treats them well, for he has a rooted ap- preciation of the duty of hospitality ; there is a pride about him, and being naturally formal and polite, he acts the host with great dignity. He withdraws from towns as soon as the stir of civilization begins to make it- self felt. When we first arrived at Para, many Indian families resided there, for the mode of living at that time was more like lhat of a large village than a city ; but as soon as river steamers and more business ac- tivity were introduced, they all gradually took themselves away. These characteristics of the Pa remedy but to wait, and children, in little leaky canoes laden 10 his leisure. Tha situation of liiu place, and 648 THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. nature of the woods around it, promised well for novelties in birds and insects ; so we :had no reason to be vexed at the delay, but brought our apparatus and store-boxes up from the canoe, and set to work. The easy, lounging life of the people .amused us very much. I afterward had plenty of time to become used to tropical vil- Jage life. There is a free, familiar, pro bono publico style of living in these small places, which requires some time for a European to :fall into. No sooner were we established in -our rooms than a number of lazy young fel- :lows came to look on and make remarks, and we had to answer all sorts of questions. The houses have their doors and windows open to the street, and people walk in and out as they please ; there is always, however, 21 more secluded apartment, where the female •members of the families reside. In their ifamiliarity there is nothing intentionally -offensive, and it is practiced simply in the •desire to be civil and sociable. A young isnamcluco, named Scares, an Escrivao, or ^public clerk, took me into his house to show .ime his library. I was rat her surprised to see -a number oc well-thumbed Latin classics, Virgil, Tereace, Cicero's Epistles, and Livy. I was not familiar enough, at this early period •of my residence in the country, with Portu- guese to converse freely with Senhor Soares, 'Or ascertain what use he made of these 'books ; it was an unexpected sight, a classi- cal library in a mud-plastered and palm- ^t hatched hint on the banks of the Tocantius. The prospect from the village was magnifi- cent, overthegreen wooded islands, far away to the gray line of forest on the opposite shore of the Tocantins. We were now well out of ithe low alluvial country of the Amazons ^proper, and the climate was evidently much •drier than it is near Para. They had had no rain here for many weeks, and the atmos- phere was hazy around the horizon ; so much rso that the sun, before setting, glared like a l?lood-rcd globe. At Para this never hap- pens ; the stars and sun are as clear and sharply defined when they peep above the ^distant tree-tops as they are at the aenith. This beautiful transparency of the air arises, 'doubtless, from the equal distribution through it of invisible vapor. I shall ever remember, an oue of my voyages along the Para river, t he g i and spectacle that was once presented •at sunrise. Our vessel was a large schooner, :and we were bounding along before a spank- ing breeze,which tossed the waters into foam, •when the day dawned. So clear was the vair that the lower rim of the full moon re- auained sharply defined until it touched the western horizon, while, at the same time, the .sun rose in the east. The two great orbs -were visible at the same time, ana the pas- :sage from the moonlit night to day was so .rgeDtle that it seemed to be only the brighten- Sng of dull weather. The woods around IBaiaG were of second growth, the ground laving been formerly cultivated. A great aiumber of coffee and cotton-trees grew iamong the thickets. A fine woodland path^. way extends for miles over the high, undulat- ing bank, leading from one house to another along the edge of the cliff. I went into se,v eral of them, and talked to their inmates. They were all poor people. The men were out fishing,some far away, a distance of many days' journey ; the women plant mandioca, make the farinha, spin and weave cotton, manufacture soap of burnt cacao-shells and andiroba oil, and follow various other domestic employments. 1 asked why they allowed their plantations to run to waste. They said that it was useless trying to plant anything hereabout ; the Saiiba ant devour- ed the young coffee-trees, and every one who attempted to contend against this universal ravager was sure to be defeated. The coun- try, for many miles along the banks of the river, seemed to be well peopled. The in- habitants were nearly all of the tawny-white mameluco class. I saw a good many mulat- toes, but rery few negroes and Indians, and none that could be called pure whites. When Senhor Seixas arrived, he acted very kindly. He provided us at once with two men, killed an ox in our honor, and treated us altogether with great consideration. We were not, however, introduced to his family. I caught a glimpse once of his wife, a pretty little mameluco woman, as she was tripping with a young girl, whom I supposed to be her daughter, across the back yard. Both wore long dressing-gowns, made of bright- colored calico print, and had long wooden tobacco-pipes in their mouths. l"he room in which we slept and worked had formerly served as a storeroom for cacao, and at night I was kept awake for hours by rats and cock- roaches, which swarm in all such places. The latter were running about all over the walls ; now and then one would come sud- denly with a whirr full at my face, and get under my shirt if I attempted to jerk it off. As to the rats, they were chasing one another by dozens all night long, over the floor, up and down the edges of the doors, and along the rafters of the open roof. September 1th. —We started from BaiaO at an early hour. One of our new men was a good-humored, willing young mulatto, named Jose ; the other was a sulky Indian, called Manoel, who seemed to have been pressed into our service against his will. Senhor Seixas, on parting, sent a quantity of fresh provisions on board. A few miles above Baiao the channel became very shallow ; we got aground several times, and the men had to disembark and shove the vessel off. Alexandro here shot several fine fish, with bow g,nd arrow. It was the first time I had seen fish captured in this way. The arrow is a reed, with a steel-barbed point, which is fixed in a hole at the end, and secured by fine twine made from the fibres of pineapple leaves. It is only in the clearest water that fish can be thus shot ; and the only skill re- quired is to make, in taking aim, the proper allowance for refraction. The next day before sunrise a fine breeze ^sprang up, and the men awoke and set the THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. sails. We glided all day through channels between islands with long white sandy- beaches, over which, now and then, aquatic and wading birds were seen running. The forest was low, and had a harsh, dry" aspect. Several palm-trees grew here which we had not before seen. On low bushes, near the water, pretty red-headed tanagers (tauagra gularis) were numerous, flitting about and chirping like sparrows. About half past four P.M. we brought to at the mouth of a creek or channel, where theie was a great extent of sandy beach. The sand had been blown by the wind into ridges and undula- tions, and over the moister paits large flocks of sandpipers \vere running about. Alexan- dro and I had a long ramble over the rolling plain, which came as an agreeable change after the monotonous forest scenery amid which we had been so long travelling. He pointed out to me the tracks of a huge jaguar on the sand. We found here, also, our first turtle's nest, and obtained 120 eggs from it, which were laid at a depth of nearly two feet from the surface, the mother first excavating a hole, and afterward covering it up with sand. The place is discoverable only by fol- lowing the tracks of the turtle from the Water. I saw here an alligator for the first time, which reared its head and shoulders above the water just after I had taken a bath near the spot. The night was calm and cloudless, and we employed the hours before bedtime in angling by moonlight. On the lOtu we leached a small settlement called Patos, consisting of about a dozen houses, and built on a high rocky bank, on the eastern shore. The rock is the same nodular conglomerate which is found at so many places, from the sea-coast to a distance of COO miles up the Amazons. Mr. Leavens made a last attempt here to engage men to accompany us to the Araguaya ; but it was in vain : not a soul could be induced by any amount of wages to go oil such an expe- dition. The reports as to the existence of cellar were very vague. All said that the tree was plentiful somewhere, but no one could fix on the precise locality. I believe that the cedar grows, like all other forest trees, in a scattered way, and not in masses anywhere. The fact of its being the princi- pal tree observed floating down with the cur- icntof the Amazons, is to be explained by its wood being much lighter than that of the majority of trees. When the banks are washed away by currents, trees of all species fall into the river ; but the heavier ones, which are the most numerous, sink, and the lighter, such as the cedar, alone float down lo the sea. Mr. Leavens was told that there were cedar trees at Trocara, on the opposite side of the river, near some fine rounded hills covered with forest, visible from Palos ; so there we went. We found here several fam- ilies encamped in a delightful spot. The shore sloped gradually down to the water, and was shaded by a few wide spreading trees. There was no underwood. A number of hammocks were seen slung be- tween the tree-trunks, and the litter of a nu- merous household lay scattered about. Women, old and young, some of the latter very good-looking, and a large number or children, beside pet animals, enlivened the? encampment. They were all half-breeds, simple, well-disposed people, and explained to us that they were inhabitants of Cameta, who had come thus far. eighty miles, to spend the summer months. The only motive they could give for coming was, " that it was so hot in the town in the veraO (summer), an I they were all so fond of fresh fish." Thus these simple folks think nothing of leaf ing- home and business to come on a three months' picnic. It is the annual custom of" this class of people, throughout the province, to spend a few months of the fine season in the wilder parts of the country. They carry with them all the farinha they can set ape to- gether, this being the only article of food necessary to provide. The men hunt and fisli for the day's wants, and sometimes collect a little india-rubber, sarsaparilla, or copaiba, oil, to sell to traders on their return ; tho women assist in paddling the canoes, do ther cooking, and sometimes fish with rod and line. The weather is enjoyable the whole? time, and so days and weeks pass happily- away. One of the men volunteered to walk with: us into the forest, and show us a few cedar- trees. We passed through a mile or two of" spiny thickets, and at length came upon the. banks of the rivulet Trocara, which flows over a stony bed, and, about a mile above its, mouth, falls over a ledge of rocks, thus form- ing a very pretty cascade. In the neighbor- hood we found a number of specimens of a curious laud-sheil. a large flat Helix, with a. labyrinthine mouth (Anastoma). We learned afterward that it was a species which had been discovered a few years previously by Dr. Gardner, the botanist, on the upper part of the Tocantins. We saw here, for the first time, the splen- ded hyaointhine macaw (Macrocercus hya- cinthiuus, Lath., the Ararunaof the natives),, one of the finest and rarest species of ther Parrot family. It only occurs in tho interior of Brazi), from 16° S. lat. to the southern border of the Amazons valley. It is Lhree= feet long from the beak to the tip of the tail, and is entirely of a soft hyacinthine blua color, except round the eyes, where tlu skin is naked and white. It flies in pairs, ami feeds on the hard nuts of several palms, but- especially of the Mucuja (Acrocomia lasiospa- tha). These nuts, which are so hard as lo be. dirticult to break with a heavy hammer, are crushed to a pulp by the powerful beak wf this macaw. Being- unable to obtain men, Mr. Leaven* now gave up his project of ascending the: river as far as the Araguaya. He assented to our request, however, to ascend to the cat- aracts near Arroyos. We started therefore; from Patos with a more definite aim before: us than we had hitherto had. The river be.- NATURALIST ON THE RIVEK AMAZONS. -canio m >re picturesque as we advanced. The water was very low, it being now the .height of the dry season ; the islands were smaller than those further down, and some «)f them were high and rocky. Bold wooded fluffs projected into the stream, and all the .-shores were fringed with beaches of glisten- ing white sand. On one side of the river there was an extensive grassy plain or campo with isolated patches of trees scattered over :it. On the 14th and following day we •stopped several times to ramble ashore. Our longest excursion was to a large shallow la- .goon, choked up with aquatic plants, which .lay about two miles across the campo. At a place called Juquerapua we engaged a pilot to conduct us to Arroyos, and a few miles ab >ve the pilot's house, arrived at a point where it was not possible to advance further in our large canoe, on account of the rapids. September \Qth. — Embarked at six A.M. in a -large montaria which had been lent to us for this part of the voyage by Senhor Seixas, .leaving the vigilinga anchored close to a rocky islet, named Santa Anna, to await our return. A ten A.M. we arrived at the first rapids, which aie called Tapaiunaquara. 'The river, which was here about a mile wide, was choked up with rocks, a broken ridge passing completely across it. Between these •confused piles of stone the currents were feat fully strong, and formed numerous ed- dies and whirlpools. We were obliged to get put occasionally and walk from rock to rock, while the men dragged the canoe over the obstacles. Beyond Tapaiunaquara the stream became again broad and deep, and the river scenery was beautiful in the extreme. The water was clear, and of a bluish-green color. On both sides of the stream stretched ranges of wjoded hills, and in the middle picturesque rislets rested on the smooth water.whose brill- iant green woods fringed with palms formed •charming bits of foreground to the perspec- tive of sombre hills fading into gray in the dis- tance. Joaquim pointed out to us grove after grove of Brazil-nut-trees (Bertbolletia ex- xjelsa) on the mainland. This is one of the «hief collecting grounds for this nut. The tree is one of the loftiest in the forest, tower- ing far above its fellows ; we could see the wo'xly fruits, large and round as cannon- tmlls, dotted over the branches. The cur- rents were very strong in some places, so that during the greater part of the way the men pivf"-recl to travel near the shore, and oro- >p<;l the boat by means of long poles. We: an ived at Arroyos about four o'clock i i Ih ; afternoon, after ten hours' hard pull. 'Tin plactt consists simply of a few houses •luiilt on a high bank, and forms a station wher -.; canoe-men from the mining countries •of t lie interior of Brazil stop to rest them- selves before or after surmounting the drea led falls and rapids of Guaribas, situated a couple of miles further up. We dined .-.ashore, and in the evening again embarked to vi>it the falls. The vigorous and success- ful way in which our men battled with the terrific currents excited our astonishment. The bed of the river, here about a mne wide, is strewn with blocks of various sizes, which lie in the most irregular manner, and be- tween them rush currents of more or less rapidity. With an accurate knowledge of the place and skilful management, the falls can be approached in small canoes by thread- ing the less dangerous channels. The main fall is about a quarter of a mile wide ; we climbed to an elevation overlooking it, and ,had a good view of the cataract. A body of j water rushes with terrific force down a steep slope, and boils up with deafening roar around the boulders which obstruct its course. The wildness of the whole scene was very impressive. As far as the eye could reach stretched range after range of wooded hills, scores of miles of beautiful wilderness, in- habited only by scant}' tribes of-wild Indians. In the midst cf such a solitude the roar of the cataract seemed fitting music. September 17th. — We commenced early in the morning our downward voyage. Arroyos is situated in about 4° 10' S. lat., and lies, therefore, about 130 miles from the mouth of the Tocantins. Fifteen miles above Guaribas another similar cataiact, called Tabocas, lies across the river. We were told that there were in all fifteen of these obstrur tions to navigation between Arroyos and the mouth of the Araguaya. The worst was the Inferno, the Guarihas standing second to it in evil reputation. Many canoes and lives have been lost here, most of Hie accidents arising through the vessels be.ng hurled against an enormous cubical mass of rock called the Guaribinha, which we, on our trip to the falls in the small canoe, passed round with the greatest ease about a quarter of a mile below the main falls. This, however, was the dry season ; in the time of full waters a tremendous cur- rent sets against it. We descended the river rapidly, and found it excellent fun shooting Hie rapids. The men seemed to delight in choosing the swiftest parts of the current ; they sang and yelled in the greatest excite- ment, working the paddles with great force, and throwing clouds of spray above us as we bounded downward. We stopped to rest at the mouth of a rivulet named Caganxa. The pilot told us that gold had been found in the bed of this brook ; so we had the curiosity to wade several hundred yards through the icy cold waters in search of it. Mr. Leavens seemed very much interested in the matter ; he picked up all the shining stones he could espy in the pebbly bottom, in hopes cf find- ing diamonds also. There is, in fact, no reason "why both gold and diamonds should not be found here, the hills being a continu- ation of those of the mining countries of in- terior Brazil, and the brooks flowing through the narrow valleys between them. On arriving at the place where we had left our canoe, we stayed all night and part of the following day* and I had a stroll along a delightful pathway, which led over hill and dale, two or three miles through the forest. I was surprised at the number variety of THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 631 "brilliantly-colored butterflies ; they were all of small size, and started forth at every step 1 took, from the low bushes which bordered the road. 1 first heard here the notes of a trogon : it was seated alone on a branch, at no great elevation ; a beautiful bird, with glossy-green back and rose-colored breast {probably Trogon inelanurus). At intervals it utteied, in a complaining tone, a sound re- sembling the words "qua, qua." It is a dull inactive bird, and not very ready to lake ifight when approached. In this respect, iowever, the trogons are not equal to the jacatnars, whose stupidity in remaining at their posts, seated on low branches in the gloomiest shades of the forest, is somewhat rematkable in a country where all other biids are exceedingly wary. One species of jacarnar was not uncommon here (Galbula viridis) ; I sometimes saw two or three to- gether, seated on a slender branch, silent and motionless with the exception of a slight movement of the head ; when an insect flew past within a short distance, one of the birds would dart off, seize it, and return again to its sitting-place. The trogons are found in the tropics of both hemispheres ; the jaca- mars, which are clothed in plumage of the most beautiful golden-bronze and steel col- ors, are peculiar to tropical America. At night 1 slept ashore as a change from the confinement of the canoe, having ob- tained permission from Senhor Joaquim to sling my hammock under his roof. The house, ifke all others in these out-of-the-way parts of the country, was a large, open, palm-thatched shed, having one end inclosed by means of partitions, also made of palm- leaves, so as to form a private apaitment. Under the shed were placed all the household utensils ; earthenware jars, pots, and ket- tles, hunting and fishing implements, pad- •dles, bows and arrows, harpoons, and so fvrth. One or two common wooden chests serve to contain the holiday clothing of the females ; there is no other furniture, except n few stools and the hammock, which an- swers the purposes of chair and sofa. When a visitor enters, he is asked to sit down in a hammock : persons who are on intimate terms with each other recline together in the same hammock, one at each end ; this is a very convenient arrangement for friendly conversation. There are neither tables nor chairs ; the cloth for meals is spread on a mat, anil the guests squat round in any po- -sition they choose. There is no cordiality of manners, but the treatment of the guests shows a keen sense of the duties of hospi- tality on the part of the host. There is a good deal of formality in the intercourse of these half-wild mamelucos, which, I believe, has been chiefly derived from their Indian forefathers, although a little of it may have been copied from the Portuguese. A little distance from the house were the open sheds under which the farinlm for the use of the establishment was manufactured. In the centre of each shed stood the shallow jpans, made of clay and built over ovens. where the meal Is roasted. A long flexible cylinder made of the peel of a marantaceous plant, plaited into the proper form, hung sus- pended from a beam ; it is in this that the pulp of the mandioca is pressed, and from it the juice, which is of a highly poisonous na- ture, although the pulp is wholesome food, runs into pans placed beneath to receive it. A wooden trough, such as is used in all these places for receiving the pulp before the poisonous matter is extracted, stood on the ground, and from the posts hung the long wicker-work baskets, or aturas, in which the women carry the roots from the n>c,a or Ctauing ; a broad ribbon made from the inner bark of the monguba-tree is attached to the rims of the baskets, and is passed round the forehead of the carriers, to relieve their backs in supporting the heavy load. Around the shed weie planted a number of banana and other fruit trees ; among them were the never - failing capsicum-pepper bushes, brilliant as holly-trees at Christmas time, with their fiery-red fruit, and lemon- trees ; the one supplying the pungent, the other the acid, for sauce to the perpetual meal of fish. There is never in such places any appearance of careful cultivation, no garden or orchard ; the useful trees are sur- rounded by weeds and bushes, and close be- hind rises the everlasting forest. In descending the river we landed fre- quently, and Mr. Wallace and I lost no chance of adding to our collections ; so that before the end of our journey we had got to- gether a very considerable number of birds, insects, and shells, chiefly taken, however, in the low country. Leaving BaiaO, we took our last farewell of the limpid waters and varied scenery of the upper river, and found our- selves again in the humid flat region of the Amazons valley. We sailed down this lower part of the river by a different channel from the one we travelled along in ascending, and frequently went ashore on the low islands in mid-r:.ver. As already stated, these are cov- ered with water in* the wet season ; but at this time, there having been three months of fine weather, they weie dry throughout, and, by the subsidence of the waters, placed tour or five feet above the level of the river. They are covered with a most luxuriant forest, comprising a large number of india-rubbei trees. We found several people encamped here, who were engaged in collecting and preparing the rubber, and thus had an oppor- tunity of observing the process. The tree which yields this valuable sap is the siphonia elastica, a member of the Euphor- biaceous order ; it belongs, therefore, to a group of plants quite different from that which furnishes the caoutchouc of the East Indies and Africa. This latter is the product of different species of Ficus, and is consid ered, 1 believe, in commerce »n inferior arti- cle to the india-rubber of Para. The siphonia elastica grows only on the lowlands in the Amazons legion ; hitherto the rubber has been collected chiefly in the islawds and swampy parts of the mainland within a dis- 652 _HE NATURALIST OK 1 'HE RIVER AMAZONS. tance of fl ty to a hundred miles to the west of Para ; but there are plenty of untapped trees still growing in the wilds of the Tapa- jos, Madeira, Jufua, and Jaurai, as far as 1800 miles from the Atlantic coast. The tree is not remarkable in appearance ; in bark and foliage it is not unlike th'e European ash ; but the trunk, like that of all forest trees, shoots up to an immense height before throw- ing off branches. The trees seem to be no man's property hereabout. The people we met with told us they came every year to collect rubber on these islands, as soon as the waters had subsided, namely, in August, and remained till January or February. The process is very simple. Every morning each person, man or woman, to whom is allotted a certain number of trees, goes the round of the whole, and collects in'a large vessel the milky sap which trickles from gashes made in the bark on the preceding evening and which is received in little clay cups, or in ampullaria shells stuck beneath the wounds. The sap, which at first- is of the consistence of cream, soon thickens ; the collectors are provided with u great number of wooden moulds of the shape in which the rubber is wanted, and when they return to the camp they dip them into the liquid lay ing on, in the course of several days, one coat after another. When this is done, the substance is white and hard ; the proper color and consistency are given by passing it repeatedly through a thick black smoke obtained by burning the nuts of certain palm-trees, after which pro- cess the article is ready for sata India-rub- ber is known throughout the province only by the name of seringa, the Portuguese word for syringe ; it owes this appellation to the circumstance that it was in this form only that the first Portuguese settlers not iced it to be employed by the aborigines. It is said that the Indians were first taught to make syringes of rubber by seeing natural tubes formed by it, when the spontaneously-flowing sap gathered round projecting twigs. Bra- zilians of all classes still "use it extensively in the form of syringes, for injections form a great feature in the popular system oi: cures ; the rubber for this purpose is made into a pear-shaped bottle, and a quill fixed in the long neck. • September 24^7*. — Opposite Cameta the islands are all planted with cacao, the tree which yields the chocolate nut. The forest is not cleared for the purpose, but the cacao plants are stuck in here and there almost i»t random among the trees. There are many houses on the banks of the river, all elevated above the swampy soil on wooden piles, and furnished wi-th broad ladders by which to mount to the ground floor. As we passed by in our canoe we could see the people at thefr occupations in the open verandas, and in one place saw a ball going on in broad day- light ; there were fiddles and guitars hard at work, and a number of lads in while shirts and trousers dancing with brown damsels clad in showy print dresses. The cacao-tree produces a curious impression, on account o£ the flowers and fruit growing directly out ot the trunk and branches. There is a whole group of wild-fruit trees which have the same habit in this country. In the wildernesses where the cacao is planted, the collecting of the fruit is dangerous from the number of poisonous snakes \vhich inhabit the places. One day, when we were running our mou- taria to a landing-place, we saw a large ser- pent on the trees overhead, as we were about to brush past ; the boat was stopped just in the nick of time, and Mr. Leavens brought the repre three churches, and also a small theatre, where a company of native actors, at the time of my visit, were representing light Portuguese plays with considerable taste and aWlity. The people have a reputation all over the province for energy and persever- •ance ; and it is often said that they are as keen in trade as the Portuguese. The lower classes are as indolent and sensual here as in other parts of the province, a moral condition not to be wondered at in a country where perpetual summer reigns and where the necessaries of life are so easily obtained. But they are light-hearted, quick-witted, commu- nicative, arnd hospitable. I found here a na- tive poet, who had written some pretty verses, sbo\viug an appreciation of the natural beau- ties of the country, and was told that the Archbishop of Bahia, the Primate of Brazil, was a native of Cameta. It is interesting to find the mamelucos displaying talent and en- terprise, for it shows that degeneracy does n«pt necessarily result from the mixture of white and Indian blood. The Cametaenses boast, as they have a right to do, of theirs being the only large town which resisted suc- cessfully the anarchists in the great rebellion of 1835-6. While the whites of Para were submitting to the rule of half-savage revolu- tionists, the nifimelucos of Cameta placed themselves under the leadership of a coura- geous priest, named Prudencio, armed themselves, fortified the place, and repulsed the large forces which the iusurge.ytf -f ^ara sent to attack the place. The town not only becauie the refuge for all loyal subjects, but was a centre whence large parties of volun- teers sallied forth repeatedly to attack the- anarchists in their various strongholds. The forest behind Cameta is traversed by several broad roads, which lead over undu- lating ground many miles into the interior. They pass generally under shade, and part of the way through groves of coffee and orange trees, fragrant plantations of cacaor and tracts of second-growth woods. The nar- row brook-watered valleys, with which the- land is inteisected, alone have remained clothed with primeval forest, at least near the town. The houses along these beautiful, roads belong chiefly to mameluco, mulatto,, and Indian families, each of which has its; own small plantation. There are only a few^ planters with larger establishments, and these* have seldom more than a dozen slaves. Be- sides the main roads, there are endless by- paths which thread the forest and communi- cate with isolated houses. Along these the* traveller may wander day after day without leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with, cheerful, simple, and hospitable people. Soon after lauding I was introduced to the most distinguished citizen of the place, Dr. Angelo Custodio Correia, whom I have already mentioned. This excellent man was a favorable specimen of the highest class of native Brazilians. He had been educated iiii Europe, was now a member of the Biazilian Parliament, and had been twice president of his native province. His manners were less; formal, and his goodness more thoroughly genuine, perhaps, than is the rule gtneially with Brazilians. He was admirecUnd loved, as I had ample opportunity of obseiving, throughout all Amazonia. He saciificed his. life in 1855, for the good of his fellow towns- men, when Cameta was devastated by the= cholera ; having stayed behind with a few heroic spirits to succor invalids and direct the burying of the dead, when Dearly all the chief citiztns had fled fiom the place After he had done what he could he t-mbtirktd for Para, but was himself then attacked with cholera, and died on board the steamer before- he reached the capital. Dr. Angelo received me with the usual kindness which he showed to all strangers. He procured me, unso- licited, a clmiming country house, free of rent, hired a nniatto servant for me, and thus. relieved me of the many annoyances and de- lays attendant on a first ai rival in a country town where even the name of an inn is un- known. The rociuha thus given up for my residence belonged to a friend of his, Senhor Jose Raimundo Furtado, a stout florid-corn- plexioned gentleman, such a one as might be- met with any day in a country town in Eng- land. To him also I was indebted for many acts of kindness. The rociuha was situated near a broad, grassy road bordered by lofty woods, which leads from Cameta to the Ald( ia. a village two miles distant. My first walks wtre along; tiri3 road. Fiom it blanches another similar THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. "but stin more picturesque road, which runs 1o Curima and Pacaja, two small settlements, several miles distant, in the heart of the for- est. The Curima road is beautiful in the ex- treme. About half a mile from the house where I lived it crosses a brook flowing through a deep dell, by means of a long rus- tic wooden bridge. The virgin forest is here left untouched ; numerous groups of slender palms, mingled with lofty trees overrun with creepers and parasites, fill the shady glen and arch over the bridge, forming one of the most picturesque scenes imaginable. A lit- tle beyond the bridge there was an extensive grove of orange and other trees, which yield- ed me a rich harvest. The Aldeia road runs parallel to the river, the land from the border of the road to the indented shore of the To- cant ins forming a long slope, which was also richly wooded ; this slope was threaded by numerous shady paths, and abounded in beau- tiful insects and birds. At the opposite or southern end of the town there was a broad road called the Estrada da Vacaria ; this ran along the banks of the Tocantins at some distance from the river, and continued over hill and dale, through bamboo thickets and palm swamps, for about fifteen miles. At Cameta I chanced to verify a fact relat- ing to the habits of a large hairy spider of the genus Mygale, in a manner worth recording. The species was M. avicularia, or one very closely allied to it ; the individual was nearly two inches in length of body, but the legs expanded seven inches, and the entire body and legs were covered with coarse gray and reddish hairs. I was attracted by a move- ment of the monster on a tree-trunk ; it was close beneath a deep crevice in the tree, across which was stretched a dense white web. The lower part of the web was broken, and two small birds, finches, were entangled in the pieces ; they were about the size of the Eng- lish siskin, and I judged the two to be male and female. One of them was quite dead : ihe other lay under the body of the spider not quite dead, and was smeared with the fi.thy liquor or saliva exuded by the monster. 1 drove away the spider and took the birds, but the second one soon died. The fact of species of Mygale sallying forth at night, mounting trees, and sucking the eggs and young nf humming-birds, has been recorded long ago by Madame Merian and Palisot de Beauvois ; but, in the absence of any con- firmation, it has come to be discredited. From the way the fact has been related it would appear that it had been merely derived from the report of natives, and had not been witnessed by the narrators. Count Langs- dorff, in his'" Expedition into the Interior of Brazil," states that he totally disbelieved the story. 1 found the circumstance to be quite a novelty to the residents hereabout. The Mygales are quite common insects ; some species make their cells under stones, others form artistic tunnels in the earth, and some build their dens in the thatch of houses. The natives call them Aninhas carangueijeiras, or crab-spiders. The hairs with which they are clothed come off when touched, and cause a peculiar and almost maddening irritatiou. The first specimen that I killed and prepared was handled incautiously, and I suffered ter- ribly for three days afterward. I think this is not owing to any poisonous quality resid- ing in the hairs, but to their being short and hard, and thus getting into the fine creases of the skin. Some Mygales are of immense size. One day I saw the children belonging to an Indian famity, who collected for me, with one of these monsters secured by a corrl round its waist, by which they were leading it about the house as they would a dog. The only monkeys I observed at Cameta were the Couxio (Pitheciu Satanas) — a large species, clothed with long brownish-black hair— and the tiny Midas argentatus. The Couxio has a thick bushy tail, and the hair of the head, which looks as if it had been carefully combed, sits on it like a wig. It inhabits only the most retired parts of the forest, on the terra finna, and I observed nothing of its habits. Ihe little Midas argen- tatus is one of the rarest of the American monkeys ; indeed, I have not heard of its being found anywhere except near Cameta, where I once saw three individuals, looking: like so many white kittens, running along a branch in a cacao grove ; in their motions they resembled precisely the Midas ursulus already described. I saw afterward a pet animal of this species, and heard that th°re were many so kept, and that they were esteemed as groat treasures. The one men- tioned was full grown, although it measured only seven inches in length of body. It was covered with long white silky hairs, the tail being blackish, and the face nearly naked and flesh-colored. It was a most timid and sensi- tive little thing. The woman who owned it carried it constantly in her bosom, and no money would induce her to part with her pet. She called it Mico. It fed from her tuouth, and allowed her to fondle it freely, but the nervous little creature would not per mit strangers to touch it. If any one at- tempted to do so, it shrank back, the whole body trembling with fear, and its teeth chat- tered while it uttered its tremulous frightened tones. The expression of its features was like that of its more robust brother, Midas ursulus ; the eyes which were black, were full of curiosity and mistrust, ami were always kept fixed on the person who attempt- ed to advance toward it. In the orange groves and other parts hum- ming-birds were plentiful, but 1 did not no- tice more than three species. I saw one day a little pygmy belonging to the genus Phae- thornis in the act of washing itself in a brook, perched on a thin branch, one end of which was under water. It dipped itself, then flut- tered its wings and preened its feathers, and seemed thoroughly to enjoy itself, alone in the shady nock which it had chosen— a place* overshadowed by broad leaves of ferns and Helicon ire. I thought, as I watched it, that there was no need for poets to invent elvea aiid gnomes, while nature furnishes u» 656 THE NATURALIST ON VHE RIVER AMAZONS. with such marvellous little sprites ready to hand. My return- journey to Para afforded many incidents characteristic of Amazonian travel- ling. 1 left Cameta on the 16th of July. Mr luggage was embarked in the morning in the Santa Rosa, a vessel of the kind called cuberta, or covered canoe. The cuberta is very much used on these rivers. It is not decked, but the sides forward arc raised, and arched over, so as to admit of cargo being piled high above the water-line. At the stern is a neat square cabin, also raised, and Ivtween the cabin and covered forepart is a narrow piece decked over, on which are placed the cooking arrangements. This is culled the tombadilha or quarterdeck, and •when the canoe is heavily laden it goes un- d jr water as the vessel heels over to the wind. There are two masts, rigged with fore and aft sails. The foremast has often, besides, a main and top sail. The forepart is planked over at the top, and on this raised deck the crew work the vessel, pulling it along, when there is no wind, by means of the long oars already described. As I have just said, my luggage was em- barked in the morning. I was informed that we should start with the ebb-tide in the after- noon, so I thought I should have time to pay my respects to Dr. Angel*o and other friends, whose extreme courtesy and good- ness had made my residence at Cameta so agreeable. After-dinner the guests, accord- ing to custom at the house of the Correias, walked into Hie cool veranda which over- looks the river ; and there we saw the Santa Rosa, a mere speck in the offing miles away, tacking down river with a fine breeze. I was njw iu a fix, for it would be useless at- tempting to overtake the cuberta, and be- sides the sea ran too high for any montaria. I was then told, that I ought to have been aboard hours before the time fixed for start- ing, because when a breeze springs up, ves- sels start before the tide turns, the last hour of the flood not being very strong. All my precious collections, my clothes, and other necessaries were on board, and it was indis- pensable that I should be at Para when the things were disembarked. I tried to hire a montaria and men, but was told that it would be madness to cross the river in a small boat with this breeze. On going^ to Senhor La- roque, another of my Cameta friends, I was relieved 01 my embarrassment ; for I found there an English gentleman, Mr. Patchett, of Pernambuo.), who was visitmg Para and its neighborhood on his way to England, and who, as he was going back to Para in a small boat with four paddles, which would start at midnight, kindly offered me a pass- age. The evening from seven to teu o'clock was very stormy. About seven, the night became intensely dark, and a terrific squall of wind buist forth, which made the loose tiles fly over the house-tops ; to this succeed- ed lightning and stupendous claps of 1 hurr^- bi tii nearly simultaneous. "VYe had lu;~. *e" eral of these short and sharp storms during the past month. At midnight, when we em- barked, all was as calm as though a ruffle had nearer disturbed air, forest, or river. The boat sped along like an arrow to the rhythmic paddling of the four stout youths we had with us, who enlivened the pasasge with their wild songs. Mr. Patchett and I tried to get a little sleep, but the cabin was so small and encumbered with boxes placed at all sorts of angles, that we found sleep im- possible. I was just dozing when the day dawned, and, on awaking, the first object I saw was the Santa Rosa, at anchor beside a green island in mid-river. I preferred to make the remainder of the voyage in com pany of my collections, so bade Mr. Patchett good-day. The owner of the Santa Rosa, Seuhor Jacinto Machado, whom I had not seen before, received me aboard, and apolo- gized for having started without me. He was a white man, a planter, and was now taking his year's produce of cacao, about twenty tons, to Para. The canoe was very heavily laden, and I was rather alarmed to see that it was leaking at all points. The crew were all in the water, diving about to feel for t"ie holes, which the}7" stopped with pieces of rag and clay, and an old negro was baling the water out of the hold. This was a pleasant prospect for a three-days' voyage. Senhor Machado treated it as the most ordi- nary incident possible : "It was always likely to leak, for it was an old vessel that had been left as worthless high and dry on the beach, and he had bought it very cheap." When the leaks were stopped, we proceeded on our journey, and at night reached the mouth of the Anapu. I wrapped myself iu an old sail, and fell asleep on the raised deck. The next day vre threaded the Igarape-mirim and on the 19th descended the Mojfu Senhor Machado and I by this time had be- come very good friends. At every interest- ing spot on the banks of the Moju, ha manned the small boat and took me ashore. There are many large houses on this river, belonging to what were formerly large and flourishing plantations, but which, since the Revolution of 1835-6, had been suffered to go to decay. Two of the largest buildings were constructed by the Jesuits in the early part of the last century. We were told that there were formerly eleven large sugar-mills on the banks of the Moju, while now there are only three. At Buiujuba there is a large monastery in a state of ruin ; part of the edifice, however, was still inhabited by s. Brazilian family. The walls are four feet in thickness. The long dark corridors and gloomy cloisters struck rne as very inappro- priate in the midst of this young and radiant nature. They would be better in place on some barren moor in Npithern Europe, than here in the m'dst of perpetual summer. The next turn in the river below Burujuba brought the city of Para into view. The win ' was now against us, and we were obliged k a'vut. Toward evening it began to ", the vessel heeled over verjr THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. much, and 8enhor Machado, for the first time, trembled for the sat'et}' of his cargo; the leaks burst out afresh, when we were yet two miles from the shore. He ordered an- other sail to be hoisted, in order to run more quickly into port, but soon afterward an ex- tra puff of wind came, and the old boat lurched alarmingly, the rigging gave way, and down fell boom and sail with a crash, en- cumbering us with the wreck. We were then obliged to have recourse to oars ; and as soon as we were near the land, fearing that the crazy vessel would sink before reach- ing port, I begged Seuhor Machado to send me ashore in the boat, with the more pre- cious portion of my collections. CHAPTER V. CARIPI AND THE BAY OP MARA./6. River Para and Bay of Maraj6— Journey to Caripf— Negro Observance of Christmas— A German Family —Bats -Ant-eaters— Humming-birds— Excursion to the Murucupi— Domestic Life of the Inhabitants — Hunting Excursion with Indians— White Ants. THAT part of the Para River which lies in front of the city, as I have already explained, forms a narrow channel, being separated from the main waters of the estuary by a cluster of islands. This channel is about two miles broad, and constitutes part of the minor estuary of Goajara, into which the three riv- ers Guauia, Moju, and Acara discharge their waters. The main channel of the Para lies ten miles away from the city, directly across the river ; at that point, after getting clear of the islands, a great expanse of water is be- held, ten to twelve miles in width ; the op- posite shore — the island of Marajo — being visible only in clear weather as a line of tree- tops dotting the horizon. A little further upward, that is, to the south-west, the main- land on the right or eastern shore appears ; this is called Carnapijo ; it is rocky, covered with the never-ending forest, and the coast, which is fringed with broad sandy beaches, describes a gentle curve inward. The broad reach of the Para in front of this coast is called tlie Bahia, or Bay of Marajo. The coast and the interior of the land are peopled by civilized Indians and mamelucos, with a mixture of f ree negroes and mulattoes. They are poor, for the waters aie not abundant in fish, and they are dependent for a livelihood solely on their small plantations, and the scanty supply of game found in the woods. The district was originally peopled by vari- ous tribes of Indians, of whom the principal were the Tupinambas and Nhengahibas. Like all the coast tribes, whether inhabiting the banks of the Amazons or the sea-shore between Para and Bahia, they were far more advanced in civilization than the hordes scattered through the interior of the country, some of which still remain in the wild state, between the Amazons and the Plata. There are three villages on the coast of Carnapijo, and several planters' houses, formerly the centres of flourishing estates, which have now relapsed into forest in consequence ef the scarcity of labor and diminished enter- prise. One of the largest of these establish- ment is called Caripi. At the time of which I am speaking it belonged to a Scotch gentle- man, Mr. Campbell, who had marrfed the daughter of a large Brazilian proprietor. Most of the occasional English and American visitors to Para had made some stay at Caripi, and it had obtained quite a reputa- tion for the number and beauty of the birds and insects found there. I therefore applied for and obtained permission to spend two or three mouths at the place. The distance from Para was about 23 miles, round by the northern end of the Ilha das Ou9as (Isle of Tigers), which faces the city. I bargained for a passage thither with the cabo of a small trading-vessel, which was going past the place, and started on the 7th of December, 1848. We were 13 persons aboard : the cabo, his pretty mulatto mistress, the pilot, and five Indian cauoemen, three 3roung mamelucos (tailor's apprentices who were taking a holiday trip to Cameta), a runaway slave heavily- chained, and myself. The young mamelucos were pleasant, gentle fellows ; they could read and write, and amused themselves on the voyage with a book containing descrip- tions and statistics of foreign countries, in which they seemed to take great interest — one reading while the others listened. At Uirapiranga, a small island behind the Ilha das Ougas, we had to stop a short time to- embark several pipes of casha(ja at a sugar estate. The cabo took the montaria and two men ; the pipes were rolled into the water and floated to the canoe, the men passing cables round and towing them through a rough sea. Here we slept, and the following morning, continuing our voyage, entered a narrow channel which intersects the land of Carnapijo. At two P.M. we emerged from this channel, which is called the Aitituba, or Arrozal, into the broad Bahia, and then saw, two or three miles away to the left, the red-tiled mansion of Caripi, embosomed in woods on the shores of a charming little bay. I remained here nine weeks, or until the 12th of February, 1849. The house was very large and most substantially built, but con- sisted of only one story. I was told it waS built by the Jesuits more than a century ago. The front had no veranda, the doors open- ing on a slightly-elevated terrace, about a hundred yards distant from the broad sandy beach. Around the residence the ground had been cleared to the extent of two or three acres, and was planted with fruit-trees. Well-trodden pathways through the forest led to little colonies of the natives, on the banks of retired creeks and rivulets in the- interior. lied heie a solitary but not un- pleasant life ; for there was a great charrn iu the loneliness of the place. "The swell of the river beating on the sloping beach cause/- iug along the main branches in the dtiytim". The allied group of the Sloths, which are still more exclusively South American forms than ant-eaters are, at the present time fur- nish arboreal species only, but formerly ter- restrial forms of sloths also existed, a*s the Megatherium, whose mode of life was a puzzle, seeing that it was of too colossal a size to live on trees, until Owen showed how it might have obtained its food from the ground. In January the orange trees became cov ered with blossom — at least to a greater ex- tent than usual, for they flower more or loss in the country all the year round — and the flowers attracted a great number of hum- ming-birds. Every day in the cooler hours of the morning, and in the evening from four o'clock till six, they were to be seen whirling about the trees by scores. Their motions are unlike those of all other birds. They dart to and fro so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow them, and when they stop before a flower it is only for a few mo- . meuts. They poise themselvts in an un- steady manner, their wings moving with in- conceivable rapidity, probe the fbwer, and then shoot off to another part of the tree. They do not proceed in that methodical man- ner which bees follow, taking the flowers spriatim, but skip about from one part of the tree to another in the most capricious way. Sometimes two males close with each other and fight, mounting upward in the struggle, as insects do when similarly en- gaged, and then separating hastily and dart ing back to their work. Now and then the} stop to rest, perching on leafless twigs, where they may be sometimes seen probing, from the places where they sit, the flowers within their reach. The brilliant colors with which they are adorned cannot be seen while they are fluttering about, nor can the different species be distinguished unless they have a deal of white hue in their plumage, such as Heliothrix auritus, which is wholly white underneath, although of a glittering green color above, and the white-tailed Floristiga mellivora. There is not a great variety of humming-birds in the Amazons region, the number of species being far smaller in these uniform forest plains than in the diversified valleys of the Andes, under the same parallels of latitude. The family is divisible into two groups, contrasted in form and habits, one containing species which live entirely in the shade of the forest, and tho other comprising those which prefer open sunny places. The forest species (Phaethorninse) are seldom seen at flowers, flowers being, in the shady places where they abide, of rare occurrence ; but they search for insects on leaves, threading the bushes and passing above and beneath « each leaf with wonderful rapidity. The other group (Trochilinse) are not quite con- fined to cleared places, as they come into the forest wherever a tree is in blossom, and de- scend into sunny openings where flowers m? to be found. But it is only where the woods arc less dense than usual that this is the c'i«-e ; in the Irfty forests ami twilight shades of the lowland and islands they aie scarcely THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. «ver seen. I searched well at Caripi, expect- ing to find the Lophornis Gpuldii, which I was told had been obtained in the locality. This is one of the most beautiful of all hum- ming-birds, having round the neck a frill of long white feathers tipped with golden green. I was not, however, so fortunate as to meet with it. Several times I shot by mistake a humming-bird hawk-moth instead of a bird. This moth (Macroglossa Titan) is somewhat smaller than humming birds generally are, but its manner of flight, and the way it poises itself before a flower while probing it with the proboscis, are precisely like the same actions of humming-birds. It was only after many days' experience that I learned to distinguish one from the other when on the wing. This resemblance has attracted the notice of the natives, all of whom, even educated whites, firmly believe that one is transmutable into the other. They have ob- served the metamorphosis of caterpillars into butterflies, and think it not at all more won- derful that a moth should change into a hum- ming-bird. The resemblance between this hawk-moth and a humming-bird is certainly very curious, and strikes one even when both are examined in the hand. Holding them sideways, the shape of the head and position- of the eyes in the moth are seen to be nearly the same as in the bird, the extended pro- boscis representing the long beak. At the tip of the moth's body there is a brush of long hair-scales resembling feathers, which being expanded, looks very much like a bird's tail. But, of course, all these points of resemblance are merely superficial. The negroes and Indians tried to convince me that the two were of the same species. " Look at their feathers," they said, " their eyes are the same, and so are their tails." This belief is so deeply rooted that it was useless to reason with them on the subject. The Macroglossa moths are found in most countries, and have everywhere the same habits ; one well-known species is found in England. Mr. Gould relates that he once had a stormy altercation with an English gentleman, who affirmed that humming- birds were found in England, for he had seen one flying in Devonshire, meaning thereby the moth Macroglossa stellatarurn. The analogy between the two creatures has been brought about, probably, by the similarity of their habits, there being no indication of the one having been adapted in outward appear ance with reference to the other. It has been observed that humming-birds are unlike other birds in their mental quali- ties, resembling in this respect insects rather than warm-blooded vertebrate animals. The want of expression in their eyes, the small degree of versatility in their actions, the quickness and precision of their movements, are all so many points of resemblance be- tween them and insects. In walking along the alleys of the forest a Phaethornis fre- quently crosses one's path, often stopping suddenly and remaining poised in mid-air, a few feet distant from the face of the intruder. The Phaethorninae are certainly more numer ous in individuals in the Amazon regions; than the Trochilinae. They build their- nests, which are made of fine vegetable fibres- and lichens, densely woven together and-, thickly lined with silk cotton from the fruit of the samauma-tree(Eriodendronsamauma)r on the inner sides of the tips of palm- fronds. They are long and purse-shaped. The youu.i^ when first hatched have very much shorter bills than their parents. The only specie of Trochilinae which 1 found1 afc Caripi \\eit; the little brassy-green Polytmasviridissimiis, the sapphire and emerald (Thaluraniai furcata), and the large falcate- winged Cam pylopterus obscurus. Snakes were very numerous at Caripi ; many harmless species were found near the house, and these sometimes came into the- rooms. I was wandering one day among the • green bushes of Guajara, a tree which yields a grape-like berry (Chrysobalanus Icaco) an-l grows along all these sandy shores, when I. was startled by what appeared to be the flexu- ous stern of a creeping plant endowed with life and threading its way among the leaves and branches. This animated liana turned out to be a pale-green snake, the Dryophis - fulgida. Its whole body is of the same green hutT, and it is thus rendered undistinguishable- amid the foliage of the Guajara bushes, where it prowls in search of its prey, tree- frogs and lizards. The forepart of its head : is prolonged into a slender pointed beak, and the total length of the reptile was six feet. There was another kind found among bushes - on the borders of the forest, closely allied to • this, but much more slender, viz., the Dryo- this acominata. This grows to a length of 4 feet 8 inches, the tail alone being 22 inches ; •. but the diameter of the thickest pait of the - body is little more than a quarter of an inch It is of light-brown color, with iridescent, shades, variegated with obscurer markings, and looks like a piece, of whip-cord. One iri dividual which I caught of this species had a protuberance near the middle of the body. On opening it I found a half-digested lizard which was much more bulky than the snake • itself. Another kind of serpent found here,, a species of Helicops, was amphibious in its ; habits. I saw several of this in wet weal her- on the beach, which, on being approached, . always made straightway for the wntir, . where they swam with much grace and dex- terity. Florinda, the housekeeper, on. day caught a Helicops while angling tor nVh, it having swallowed the fish-hook with the bait She and others told me these wuler-snakc* lived on small fishes, but I did not meit with any proof of the statement. In the wot ds,. snakes were constantly occurring ; it was not often, however, that I saw poisonous species. There were many arboreal kinds, besides the two just mentioned ; and it was lather alarming, in eritornologizing about the ti uuks of tiees, to suddenly encounter, on> turning round, as sometimes happened, a. pair of glittering eyes ana a forked t« ng-ie u few inches of cue's head. The last THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 681 feind I shall mention is the Coral snake, -which is a most beautiful object when seen coiled up on black soil in the woods. The one I saw here was banded with black and vermilion, the black bands having each two clear white rings. The state of specimens preserved in spirits can give no idea of the brilliant colors which adorn the Coral snake in life. In company with Petzell, a German settler near Caripi, I made many excursions of long ex lent in the neighboring forest. We some- times went to Murucupi, a cieek which passes through the forest about four miles behind Caripi, the banks of which are inhab- ited by Indians and half-breeds, who have Jived there for many generations in perfect seclusion from the rest of the world, the place being little known or frequented. A path from Caripi leads to it through a gloomy tract of virgin forest, where the trees are so closely packed together that the ground be- neath is thrown into the deepest shade, under which nothing but fetid fungi and rotting vegetable debris is to be seen. On emerging from this unfriendly solitude near the banks »of the Murucupi, a charming contrast is pre- sented. A glorious vegetation, piled up to an immense height, clothes the banks of the creek, which traverses a broad tract of semi- cultivated ground, and the varied masses of greenery are lighted up with a sunny glow. Open palm-thatched huts peep forth here . and there from amid groves of banana, mango, cotton, and papaw trees and pulms. On our first excursion, we struck the bauks of the river in front of a house of somewhat more substantial architecture than the rest, having finished mud walls, plastered and whitewashed, and a covering of red tiles. It . seemed to be full of children, and the aspect of the household was improved by a number of good-looking mameluco women, who were busily employed washing, spinning, and making farinha. Two of them, seated on a mat in the open veranda, were eugaged sew. ing dresses ; for a festival was going to take place a few days hence at Balcarem, a village '•fight miles distant from Murucupi, and they intended to be present to hear mass and show their finery. One of the children, a naked boy about seven years of age, crossed over with the montaria to fetch us. We were made welcome at ouce, aud asked to slay for dinner. On our accepting the invitation a couple of fowls were killed, and a wholesome stew of seasoned rice and fowls soon put in preparation. It is not often that the female members of a family in these retired places are familiar with strangers ; but these people had lived a long time in the capital, and .therefore were more civilized than their neigh- bors. Their father had been a prosperous tradesman and had given them the best ed- ucation the place afforded. After his death the widow with several daughters, married : and unmarried, retired to this secluded spot, which had been their sitio, farm or country i house, for many years. One of the daugh- ters was married to a handsome young mi'. latto, who was preset «jid sang us soms pretty songs, accompanying himself on tb.3 guitar. After dinner I expressed r, wish to 833 more of the creek, so a lively and polite old man, whom I took to be one of the neighbors, volunteered as guide. We embarked in a little montaria, and paddled some three or four miles up and down the stream. Although I had now become familiarized with beauti- ful vegetation, all the glow of fresh admiration came again to me in this place. The creek was ab nit one hundred yards wide, but nar- rower in some places. Both banks were mask- ed by lofty walls of green drapery, here and there a break occurring, through which, under over-arching trees, glimpses were obtained of the palm-thatched huts of settlers. The pro- jecting boughs of lofty trees, which in soms places stretched half-way across the creek, were hung with natural garlands and festoons, and an endless variety af creeping plants clothed the water-frontage, seme of which, especially the Bignonias, were ornamented with large gayly-colored flowers. Art could not have assorted together beautiful vegetable forms so harmoniously as was here done by nature. Palms, as usual, formed a large pro- portion of the lower trees ; some of them, however, shot up their slim stems to a height of sixty feet or more, and waved their bunches of nodding plumes between us and the sky. One kind of palm, the Pashhiba (Iriartea exorhiza), which grows here h greater abundance than elsewhere, was espe cially attractive. It is not one of the tallest kinds, for when full-grown its height is not more, perhaps, than. forty feet ; the leaves are somewhat less drooping, and the leaflets much broader than in other species, so that they have not that feathery appearance which some of those palms have, but still they pos- sess their own peculiar beauty. My guide put me ashore in one place to show me the roots of the Pashiuba. These grow above ground, radiating from the trunk many feet above the surface, so that the tree looks as if supported on stilts ; and a person can, in old trees, stand upright among the roots with the perpendicular stem wholly above his head. It adds to the singularity of their unnearance that these roots, which have the form of straight rods, are studded with stcnt thorns, while the trunk of the tree is quite smooth. The purpose of this curious arrangement ic. perhaps, similar to that of the buttress roots already described — namely, to recompense the tree by root growth above ths soil for its inability, in consequence of the competition of neighboring roots, to extend it under- ground. The great amount of mcisture and nutriment contained in the atmosphere may aUo favor these growths. On returning to the house, I fcund Petzell had been well occupied during the hot hours of the day collecting insects in a neighboring clearing. Our kind hosts gave us a cup of coffee about five o'clock, and we then started for home. The last mile of our v.'Lik was THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. performed in the dark. The forest in this part is obscure even in broad dayrght, but I was scarcely prepared for the intense opacity of darkness which reigned here on this night, and which prevented us from seeing each other, although walking side by side. Noth- ing occurred of a nature to alarm us, except that now and then a sudden rush was heard among the trees, and once a dismal shriek startled us. Petzell tripped at one place, and fell all his length into the thicket. With this exception, we kept well to the pathway, L.*?d in due time arrived safely at Caripi. One of my neighbors ai Murucupi was a hunter of reputation in these parts. He was a civilized Indian, married and settled, ramed Raimundo, whose habit was to sally forth at intervals to certain productive hunting- grounds, the situation of which he kept se- cret, and procure fresh provisions for his family. I had found out by this time that animal food was as much a necessary of life in this exhausting climate as it is in the North of Europe. An attempt which I made to live on vegetable food was quite a failure, and I could not eat the execrable salt fish which Brazilians use. I had been many days without meat of any kind, and nothing more was to be found near Caripi, so I asked as a favor of Senhor Raimundo permission to ac- company him on one of his hunting trips, and shoot a little game for my own use. He consented, and appointed a day on which I was to come over to his house to sleep, so as to be ready for starting with the ebb-tide shortly after midnight. The locality we were to visit was situated near the extreme point of the land of Carua- pijo, where it projects northwardly into the middle of the Para estuary, and is broken into a number of islands. On the afternoon of January llth, 1849, I walked through the woods to Raimundo's house, taking nothing with me but the double-barrelled gun, a sup- ply of ammunition, and a box for the recep- tion of any insects I might capture. Rai- mundo was a carpenter, and seemed to be a very industrious man ; he had two appren- tices, Indians like himself — one a young lad, and the other apparently about twenty years of age.. His wife was of the same race. The Indian women are not always of a taciturn disposition like their husbands. Senhora Dominga was very talkative ; there was another old squaw at the house on a visit, and the tongues of the two were going at a great rate the whole evening, using only the Tupi language. Raimundo and his appren- tices were employed building a canoe. Not- withstanding his industry, he seemed to be very poflr, and this was the condition of most of the residents on the banks of the Muru- cupi. They have, nevertheless, considerable plantations of mandioca and Indian corn, be- sides small plots of cotton, coffee, and sugar- cane ; the soil is very fertile ; they have no rent to pay, and no direct taxes. There is, moreover, always a market in Para, twen'v miles distant, for their surplus producyt u* a ready communication with it by water. In the evening we had more visitors. The sounds of pipe and tabor were heard, and- presently a procession of villagers emerged from a pathway through the mandioca fields. They were on a begging expedition for SL Thome, the patron saint of Indians and ma- melucos. One carried a banner, on which was rudely painted the figure of St. Tht m£ with a glory round his head. The pipe and tabor were of the simplest description. The pipe was a reed pierced with four holes, by means of which a few unmusical notes were produced, and the tabor was a broad hoop- with a skin stretched over each end. A de- formed young man played both the instru- ments. Senhor Raimundo received them with the quiet politeness which comes so na- tural to the Indian when occupying the posi- tion of host. The visitors, who had come from the Villa de Conde, five miles through the forest, were invited to rest. Raimundo then took the image of St. Thome from one of the party, and placed it by the side of Nossa Senhora in his own oratorio, a little decorated box in which every family keeps its household gods, finally lighting a couple of wax candles before it. Shortly afterward a cloth was laid on a mat, and all the guests were invited to supper. The fare was very scanty ; a boiled fowl with rice, a slice of roasted piraructi, farinha, and bananas. Each one partook very sparingly, some of the young men contenting themselves with a plateful of rice. One of the apprentices stood, behind with a bowl of water and a towei with which each guest washed hisfingeis anu rinsed his mouth after the meal. TLey stayed all night ; the large open sued was filled with hammocks, which weresluug fiom pole to pole ; andonretiiing, Raimuudo gave orders for their breakfast in the morning. Raimundo called me at two o'clock, when we embarked (he, his older apprentice, Joa- quim, and myself) in a shady place where it was so dark that I could see neither canoe nor water, taking with us five dogs. We glided down a winding creek where huge- trunks of trees slanted across close overhead, and presently emerged into the Muiucupi. A few yards further on we entered the broader channel of the Aitiluba. This we crossed, and entered another narrow creek on the opposite side. Here the ebb-tide was against us, and we had great difficulty iri making progress. After we had struggled against the "powerful current a distance of two miles, we came to a part where the ebb- tide ran in the opposite direction, showing; that we had crossed the water-shed. The tide flows into this channel or cietk at both, ends simultaneously, and meets in the mid- dle, although there is apparently no differ- ence of level, and the breadth of the water is the same. The tides are extremely intricate throughout all the infinite channels and creeks •which intersect the lands of the Amazon delta. The moon now broke forth tind light- ed up the trunks of colossal trees, the leaves of monstrous Jupati palms which arched THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. .-ever the creek, and revealed groups of arbo- lescent arums standing like rows of spectres *.u its banks. We had a glimpse now and then into the black depths of the forest, ^vvhere all was silent except the shrill stridu- lation of wood crickets. Now and then a sudden plunge in the water ahead would *tartle us, caused by heavy fruit or some nocturnal animal dropping from the trees. The two Indians here rested on their paddles, and allowed the canoe to drift with the tide. A pleasant perfume came from the forest, which Raimundo said proceeded from a cane- field. He told me that all this^ laud was owned by large proprietors at Para, who had received grants from time to time from the .-Government for political services. Raimun- do was quite in a talkative humor ; he re- Jateri to me many incidents of the time of the " Cabanagem," as the revolutionary days of 1835-6 are popularly called. He said he had been much suspected himself of being a rebel, but declared that the suspicion was unfound- ed. The only complaint he had to make against the white man was, that he monopo- lized the land without having any intention or prospect of cultivating it. He had been turned out of one place where he had squat- ted and cleared a large piece of forest. I be lieve the law of Brazil at this time was that the new lauds should become the property of those who cleared and cultivated them, if their right was not disputed within a given term of years by some one who claimed the proprietorship. This land law has since been repealed, and a new one adopted, founded on that of the United States. Raimundo spoke