FROM PARA TO MANAOS. 161 
made at Tajapuru a collection of the leaves and fruit of 
palms, of which there were several very beautiful ones 
near the shore. I sat for a long time on the deck watch 
ing an Indian cutting a leaf from a Miriti palm. He was 
sitting in the crotch of a single leaf, as safe and as perfectly 
supported as if he had been on the branch of an oak-tree, 
and it took many blows of his heavy axe to separate the 
leaf at his side which he was trying to bring down. The 
heat during the day was intense, but at about five o'clock 
it became quite cool and R and I strolled on shore. 
Walking here is a peculiar process, and seems rather 
alarming till you become accustomed to it. A great part 
of the land, even far up into the forest, is overflowed, 
and single logs are thrown across the streams and pools, 
over which the inhabitants walk with as much security 
as on a broad road, but which seem anything but safe 
to the new-comer. After we had gone a little way we 
came to an Indian house on the border of the wood. 
Here we were very cordially invited to enter, and had 
again cause to comment on the tidy aspect of the porch, 
which is their general reception-room. A description of 
one of these dwellings will do for all. Their materials are 
drawn from the forest about them. The frames are made 
of Chaetodonts, and I may now add that it is a near relative of the Chrom ties, 
and should stand by the side of Pterophyllum in a natural system. Monocir- 
rus of Heckel, which I consider as the type of a small family under the name 
of Folhidre, is also closely allied to these, though provided with a barhel, 
and should be placed with Polycentrus side by side with the Chromides and 
Helichthyoids. The manner in which Pterophyllum moves is quite peculiar. 
The profile of the head and the extended anterior margin of the high dorsal 
are brought on a level, parallel to the surface of the water, when the long 
ventrals and high anal hang down vertically, and the fish progresses slowly by 
the lateral beating of the tail. L. A. 
K 
