244 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
October 21s. - - Since Thursday afternoon our canoe lias 
been loaded, all the specimens, amounting to something 
more than thirty barrels, kegs, and boxes, packed and 
waiting the arrival of the steamer. We have paid our 
parting visits to friends and acquaintances here. I have 
taken my last ramble in the woods where I have had so 
who knew how to catch fish or fowl, was out at work, and, with the assistance 
of my young friends Dexter, Hnnnewell, and Thayer, and the co-operation 
of Major Coutinho and Mr. Burkhardt, our daily progress was unmistakable. 
They generally took care of the collections of land animals, while I reserved the 
fishes to myself, and Major Coutinho was busy with geological and meteorologi- 
cal observations. Even the servants helped in cleaning the skeletons. I made 
here a very extensive collection of fish brains, embracing most genera found 
in this locality, but it was unfortunately lost on arriving at Manaos. Aware 
of the difficulty of transporting preparations so delicate, I kept them always 
by my side, simply packed in an open barrel, in the hope of bringing them 
safely home, and also that I might, without difficulty, add to the number. In 
an unguarded moment, however, while landing, one of our attendants cap- 
sized the whole into the Rio Negro. It is the only part of my collections 
which was completely lost. 
After setting my whole party well under way in Teflfe*, I made the very 
instructive excursion with Major Estolano, of which an account is given in 
the text, to the Lago do Boto, a small sheet of water, by the side of his sitio 
on the banks of the main course of the Amazons, where I had a fair opportu- 
nity of ascertaining how widely different the fishes may be that inhabit 
adjoining faunae in the same hydrographic basin. To this day I have not 
yet recovered from my surprise at finding that shores which, from a geographic 
point of view, must be considered simply as opposite banks of the same stream, 
were, nevertheless, the abode of an essentially different ichthyological popula- 
tion. Among the most curious fishes obtained here, I would mention a new 
genus, allied to Phractocephalus, of which I know only a single very large 
species, remarkable for its uniform canary-yellow color. Doras, Acestra, 
Pterygoplichthys, c., were particularly common. Small as this lake is, the 
largest animals known in the whole basin are found in it : such as Manatees 
Botos, the Porpoise of the Amazons, which has given its name to the lake ; 
Alligators, Pirarucus, the Sudis gigas of systematic writers; Sorubims, the 
large flat-headed Ilornpouts; Pacamums, the large, yellow Siluroid above al- 
luded to, &c., &c. L. A. 
