xxii MEMOIR. 
apparently belonging to a lecture, Bates gives the following delight- 
ful picture :— 
‘*We arrived on the morning of one of the numerous Roman Catholic 
festival days, which are here celebrated with great pomp, and whilst we were 
looking on the magical scene at sunrise,—the city, the broad glassy river, 
studded with richly-wooded islands, resting like floating gardens on the 
water, the crowd of native canoes with the motley clusters of half-naked 
people of all shades in colour of skin,—whilst we were absorbed in the con- 
templation of these novel sights, the bells of the numerous churches began 
a lively peal, trumpets sounded, sky-rockets whizzed in the air, and guns 
boomed from the forts and shipping. It was a pleasant introduction to our 
new home. All the sights and sounds showed us we had come to a land 
where perpetual summer, warmth, verdure, and genial nature invited the 
inhabitants to a life of pleasure rather than one of anxiety and toil.’’ 
The travellers soon settled in a voctaha,or country-house, a mile 
and a half from Para, and close to the forest, which came down to 
their doors. Like other towns along the Amazons, Para stands on 
ground cleared from the forest that stretches, a well-nigh pathless 
tangle of luxuriant primeval vegetation, two thousand miles inland 
to the foot of the Andes. The immediate suburbs were first ex- 
plored ; but all around was a naturalist’s paradise—a virgin forest 
swarming with life. Of butterflies alone the harvest was plenteous 
Seven hundred species were found within an hour’s walk of the 
town, “ whilst the total number in the British Isles does not exceed 
66, and the whole of Europe supports only 390.” Bates thus 
summarises the general features of the country in his journal :— 
‘*A dense, impenetrable, and uninterrupted forest round Para and all 
along the river banks, the underwood solely composed of younger plants of 
the trees; a few spores of elegant ferns clothe the fallen trees, and a 
lycopodium carpets scantily the ground; this, when we add the climbing 
trees which connect tree to tree throughout the wilderness with a vast, 
intricate mass of vegetable cordage, and the parasitic plants, which are 
almost exclusively composed of numerous species of tillandsias and aracez, 
will be a description of the uniform appearance of the sombre forest of the 
banks of the Amazons, the only perceptible difference in the general aspect 
of the forest being between the moist and dry portions of it.’’ 
Para was a convenient centre of excursions, and there Bates 
resided altogether about a year and a half. He also, as will 
be seen, returned there from longer journeys, to procure supplies 
and ship his collections to England. These, although comprising 
chiefly insects, included various specimens—mammal skins, alii- 
gators’ skulls, turtles, and birds ; one barrel, noted in his journal of 
