with Remarks on their Vegetation, 177 



here met with, the tapir must be a very common animal in this 

 remote and solitary part of the mountains. Here they are as 

 yet out of the reach of the hunter, who commits great havoc 

 among those of the lower woods, and there is also abundance 

 of herbage to supply them with food. In passing through this 

 forest one of the blacks shot a Jacutinga, {Penelope Jacutinga, 

 Spix), and I collected a few orchideous plants and specimens 

 of a large yellow-flowered Senecio. Leaving this wood we 

 came upon a slanting boggy piece of ground, in ascending 

 which I found a fruticose proteaceous-like species of Composite, 

 perhaps a Baccharis ; a Vaccinium and Andromeda (?) both in 

 fruit ; two species of Melastomacea, one of them with large 

 purple flowers and small leaves ; abundance of the Eriocaulon 

 which I met with further down ; a Utricularia, a Hyptis, and 

 a Salvia. Judging from the top of the mountain we were now 

 at an elevation of more than five thousand feet. In the wood 

 through which we last passed there were no large trees, and 

 those of another which we had now entered were still smaller, 

 the highest not exceeding fifteen or tw enty feet. Leaving it 

 we commenced the ascent of a very steep place covered with 

 low shrubs, among which were three species of Melastomacece 

 which I had not before found, a frutescent Lobelia, and at a 

 considerably higher elevation the ground was principally co- 

 vered with Gaultheria hispida (Sprengel), and a Weinmannia, 

 of which I could only find three specimens in flower. The 

 Gaultheria grows from two to three feet high, and the Wein- 

 mannia a little higher. We continued our way for more than 

 an hour through this stunted vegetation, making but slow pro- 

 gress, although we were much facilitated by having the path 

 of the tapir to crawl up. By following this tract we reached 

 a point whence we had a beautiful prospect of the surround- 

 ing country, particularly to the eastward, where as far as the 

 eye could reach it was one mass of conical shaped hills, one 

 ridge only rising to a considerable elevation above the rest. 

 The point which we had attained was the summit of one of 

 the many peaks which form the range of the Organ Moun- 

 tains. At less than a quarter of a mile distant stood the high- 

 est peak, and certainly not more than three hundred feet above 

 us ; but between the two peaks lay a densely wooded ravine 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol. 1. No. 3. May 1838. n 



