FROM PARA TO MANAOS. 183 



and for her services to have her taught to read and write. 

 The man has a bright, intelligent face, and speaks with 

 genuine feeling of his desire to give an education to his 

 children. 



September 3d. Yesterday we started on our return, 

 and after a warm and wearisome row of four hours reached 

 our steamer at five o'clock in the afternoon. The scien- 

 tific results of this expedition have been most satisfactory. 

 The collections, differing greatly from each other in char- 

 acter, are very large from both our stations, and Mr. 

 Burkhardt has been indefatigable in making colored draw- 

 ings of the specimens while their tints were yet fresh. 

 This is no easy task, for the mosquitoes buzz about him 

 and sometimes make work almost intolerable. This morn- 

 ing Maia brought in a superb Pirarara (fish parrot). This 

 fish is already well known to science ; it is a heavy, broad- 

 headed hornpout, with a bony shield over the whole head ; 

 its general color is jet black, but it has bright yellow sides, 

 deepening into orange here and there. Its systematic name 

 is Phractocephalus bicolor. The yellow fat of this fish has 

 a curious property ; the Indians tell us that when parrots 

 are fed upon it they become tinged with yellow, and they 

 often use it to render their " papagaios" more variegated.* 



* I was especially interested in seeing living Gymnotini. I do not here 

 allude to the electric Gymnotus, already so fully described by Humboldt that 

 nothing remains to be said about it ; but to the smaller representatives of that 

 curious family, known as Carapus, Sternopygus, Sternarchus and Rhamphich- 

 thys. The Carapus, called Sarapos throughout Brazil, are very numerous, 

 and the most lively of the whole group. Their motions are winding and 

 rapid like those of the Eel, but yet different, inasmuch as they do not glide 

 quickly forward, but, like Cobitis and Petromyzon, turn frequent somersets and 

 change their direction constantly. This is also the case with the Sternopygus 

 and Sternarchus, and even the larger and more slender Rhamphichthys have a 

 kind of rolling motion. Though I had expected to find many Cyprinoconts, 



