EXCURSION ON THE RIO NEGRO. 331 
houses and mandioca plantations in the forest ; and the 
padre says that, on many a Sunday throughout the year, 
his congregation consists only of himself and the hoys 
who assist at the service. 
After we had rested for half an hour at the priest's 
house, he proposed to send us to his little mandioca plan- 
tation at a short distance in the forest, where a partic- 
ular kind of palm, which Mr. Agassiz greatly coveted, was 
to he obtained. Such a proposition naturally suggests a 
walk ; hut in this country of inundated surfaces land 
journeys, as will be seen, are often made by water. We 
started in a montaria, and, after keeping along the river 
for some time, we turned into the woods and began to 
navigate the forest. The water was still and clear as glass : 
the trunks of the trees stood up from it, their branches 
dipped into it ; and as we wound in and out among them, 
putting aside a bough here and there, or stooping to float 
under a green arbor, the reflection of every leaf was so per- 
fect that wood and water seemed to melt into each other, 
and it was difficult to say where the one began and the 
other ended. Silence and shade so profound brooded over 
the whole scene that the mere ripple of our paddles seemed 
a disturbance. After half an hour's row we came to dry 
land, where we went on shore, taking our boatmen with 
us ; and the wood soon resounded with the sound of their 
hatchets, as the palms fell under their blows. We returned 
with a boat-load of palms, besides a number of plants of 
various kinds which we had not seen elsewhere. We 
reached the " Ibicuhy " just in time ; for scarcely were 
we well on board and in snug quarters again, when the 
heavens opened and the floods came down. I am not 
yet accustomed to the miraculous force and profusion of 
