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 Chsetodonts, and I may now add that it is a near relative of the Chromides, 

 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 Folhidse, is also closely allied to these, though provided with a barbel, 

 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 



