142 THE NATUEAL HISTORY EEYIEW. 



tlieir results shall have become more generally accessible as they are 

 now by those scientific men who have never lost sight of the enter- 

 prising explorer from the moment he left our shores till his happy 

 return a few weeks ago. In G-ermany his services have been 

 promptly recognised by the oldest scientific body of that country, 

 the Imperial Academy Naturae Curiosorum, which has conferred 

 upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, the highest honour 

 it was in their power to bestow. 



Dr. Spruce left Liverpool on the 7th of June, 1849, and reached 

 Para on the 12th of July. After spending three months in 

 exploring the environs of that city, he ascended the Amazon to 

 Santarem, at the mouth of the Tapajoz, and in November of the same 

 year went seventy miles farther up, to Obydos, where the Amazon is 

 at its narrowest and deepest. Starting from Obydos, he explored 

 the Trombetas and its tributary the Aripecurii, as far as the cataracts 

 of the latter, in lat. 0° 47' N,, fixing five latitudes by astronomical 

 observations, and making a map of those previously unknown rivers. 

 E-eturning to Santarem in January, 1850, he remained there ex- 

 ploring the lower part of the Tapajoz and adjacent parts of the 

 Amazon until October, when he started up the Amazon for the 

 Barra do liio Negro, where he arrived after a voyage of sixty-three 

 days, thirty whereof were spent in the channels to the south of the 

 great island of Tupinambarana. 



The greater part of the year 1851 was occupied in studying and 

 collecting the rich vegetation of the lower part of the Eio Negro and 

 of the Amazon for a few days' journey up ; and in November he 

 started for the head- waters of the Eio Negro, in a boat of about nine 

 tons burthen, which he had fitted up expressly for the object. Early 

 in January, 1852, Dr. Spruce reached the village of Sao Gabriel, 

 situated about midway between the CacTioeiras, or cataracts, of the 

 Eio Negro ; and, after remaining there some seven months, he pro- 

 ceeded up the large river Uaupes, which had been scarcely known to 

 Europeans even by name until Mr. "Wallace's adventurous exploration 

 of it in the preceding year. Dr. Spruce found the Uaupes to possess 

 a more novel and beautiful forest-vegetation than any other part of 

 South America which he visited ; and his collections include several 

 undescribed genera, besides many species notable for their beauty 

 and the value of their products. Dr. Spruce remained on the Uaupes 

 until March, 1853, when he sailed out of it into the Eio Negro and 

 up the latter river, beyond the Brazilian frontier, to San Carlos del 



