225 
Journal of an Excursion from SANTAREM, on the AMAZON River, to 
On1pos and the Rio TRowBETAS ; dy RICHARD Spruce, Esa. 
(Continued from p. 208.) 
December 23.—Last night our men slept on the sail which they had 
spread on the sand near their fire. Mr. King joined them, but I 
remained in the canoe, for the purpose of being near my instruments, 
if the sky should prove clear enough for an observation. "The sand- 
bank was here and there ridged up, with minute lagoons in the hollows, 
some not more than two feet in diameter—these served me excellently 
for artificial horizons. In the early part of the evening a meridian 
altitude of a Eridani gave for latitude of our station 1? 26" S. I was 
very desirous of obtaining a lunar distance, but the moon was too 
near the zenith for my sextant to take her double altitude, and when 
I rose twice afterwards during the night, the sky was much overeast. 
At five this morning, the temperature of the air was 76°, and of the 
water near our canoe 851?,the depth being only three feet. We started 
at six, and by half-past eight reached the end of the island on our left, 
where a small river called Jarauacà enters from the west. Our course 
now veered rapidly round to N.E., and then to E., sandbanks still » 
appearing, and the river in general so shallow that the canoe almost 
everywhere scraped the bottom. Sometimes we had to turn back to 
seek other channels that would admit our passage. The river, narrow- 
ing, turned by a large curve to N. by E., the convex side being steep, 
probably sixty feet high, but apparently alluvial, and without any trace 
of rock. On it were growing an Adiantum, a minute Fissidens, and 
Fossombronia pusilla—the identical species, I believe, so well known in- 
Europe. The river now became rather tortuous: we had first a short 
reach to N., then, after a long time, a reach to N.E. of about half a 
mile, afterwards a short reach to N., and then suddenly veered round 
to E. Here, in one place on our right, rose a steep shelving cliff of 
reddish clay, without wood. Suddenly the river turns to N. by E., 
having on its right bank a good many Assaí palms—a species which 
we had seldom met with since leaving the great delta of the Amazon. 
'The river now begins to assume a westerly direction, forming a wide 
-  . and long bay, the general direction of which is N.W. by W. On our 
‘left we had a large tartaruga-bank, on which we landed a little before 
VOL. II. 26 
