34 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE 



Perhaps the most interesting article I am now forwarding, is a quan- 

 tity of salt (weighing thirty pounds, when put up) made from various 

 species of Podosteiuers^ growing on the cataracts of the Uaupes : it was 

 obtained with considerable difficulty, at several times and of several 

 different Indians. 



There is also a glass jar of Ipadii (Coca), from which a chemical 

 analysis can be made, as well as of the Fodostemon salt, whose consti- 

 tuents I am anxious to ascertain. 



I had another glass jar containing Caajn, an intoxicating drink used 

 by the TJaupe Indians in their festas ; but after I had kept it five 

 months, and thought it quite safe, the Caapi fermented and burst the jar. 

 I can therefore send only the articles from which it is prepared, viz, 

 portions of the stems of a twining MalpigJiiacea (seemingly an unde- 

 scribed5flw/s^ma), and of the roots of an Apocyneous Wmex (^Hcemadic' 

 tyon). The extraordinary effects produced on the Indians by drinking 

 Caapi I have myself witnessed, and I have detailed them to Mr. Bentham 

 in some notes on the plants collected. 



I could not send entire the large drum used on the Uaupes, as it is a 

 portion of the trunk of a Lauraceous tree, and of itself nearly a load for 

 a canoe ; but I enclose a rough sketch of it, accompanied by the drum- 

 sticks, which are of caoutchouc, 



I had a very interesting excursion on the Uaupes, lasting from the 



end of August (if I include the voyage from S. Gabriel) to early in 



March of the present year. My collection contains a greater number 



than any preceding one of the tallest forest-trees, among which are 



several nndescribed Vocliyuacece and Cmmlpinm. There are also a 



great many new things among the minutest tribes of flowering-plants, 



such as PodostemecBy Triu?idea, Burmamiiace^, and the leafless Gentia- 



nea {Voyriai). I suppose that, of the whole collection, numbering some 



500 species, about four-fifths are entirely nndescribed^ I unfortunately 



made myself ill, by working too hard both in and out of doors in the 



heat of the day, and was visited by some distressing attacks of vertigo, 



^^ r 



from which I am yet scarcely free. 



The mechanical labour of drying plants is so great here, that I have 

 little time for making geographical and other observations ; and as Mr- 

 Wallace has preceded me on the Uaupes, and his occupations leave him 

 much more spare time than mine do, I scarcely attended to anything 

 but botany there. I determined the latitude of Panure, or Sao Jeronymo, 



