w 
ON THE AMAZON AND RIO NEGRO. 2 
until they should again go down. For it should be noted that on the 
Casiquiare and Alto Orinoco, though the seasons are very uncertain, 
the driest months of the year are considered to be January, February, 
and March, and in the last-named month the rivers are expected to be 
lowest. This year, however, the turning-point was on the 8th of Ja- 
nuary, and the swelling of the streams has gone on continuously, with 
the exception of a very slight subsidence in the middle of February, 
until the present time, when they are as full as usually at the end of 
June. Hence every one says there has been no “ vasante”’ this year, 
and the consequences are disastrous. No turtle-oil could be collected 
on the Alto Orinoco and Casiquiare—no turtles caught and no fish 
salted. We anticipate a short allowance of food and lamp-light through- 
out the winter. The same cause interfered much with the execution 
of my own projects. I soon found that in waiting for the drying of the 
river, I was likely to be as successful as the countryman in the fable; 
so having explored all the tracks in the forest at the back of Yamadu- 
bani, I left for Vasiva on the 22nd, and in the evening of the same day 
took up a position within the outlet of the lake, on the only piece of 
land that was not inundated. During the four following days, which 
were dreadfully gloomy and rainy, I explored the lake in my curiara, 
and then, seeing I could do no more there, again continued down the 
Casiquiare. I was not content to return to San Carlos without adding 
considerably to my stock of dried plants, and my best plan now seemed 
to be to explore the Pacimoni. This I was enabled to execute. I en- 
tered the Pacimoni on January 27th, and in the space of a month ex- 
plored it to its head-waters, which are in the midst of magnificent 
mountains, the latter uninhabited and all but inaccessible, and scarcely 
known to geographers even by name. 
I have not time to write in detail of the plants collected. Those 
from the Pacimoni include the most novelty, but perhaps the small 
‘collection made of Esmeralda will be looked on with more interest 
by Mr. Bentham and yourself, although I suppose all the species have 
been gathered previously either by Humboldt or Schomburgk. The — aoe 
low cerros near Esmeralda—the débris of Duida—have a scanty, scat- 
tered, fruticose vegetation, among which one of the most prominent 
plants is a Commianthus, apparently C. Schomburgkii, Benth., though a. 
smaller form than I gathered nearly two years previously on a small 
sandy campo near the Barra. It is so abundant within a quarter a 
