32 PARA, Cuap. II. 
are more or less like this throughout the year in this country. A little 
difference exists between the dry and wet seasons ; but generally, the 
dry season, which lasts from July to December, is varied with showers, 
and the wet, from January to June, with sunny days. It results from 
this, that the periodical phenomena of plants and animals do not take 
place at about the same time in all species, or in the individuals of any 
given species, as they do in temperate countries. Of course there is no 
hybernation ; nor, as the dry season is not excessive, is there any 
summer estivation, as in some tropical countries. Plants do not flower 
or shed their leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, or breed simultaneously. 
In Europe, a woodland scene has its spring, its summer, its autumnal, 
and its winter aspects. In the equatorial forests the aspect is the same 
or nearly so every day in the year; budding, flowering, fruiting, and 
leaf-shedding are always going on in one species or other. ‘The activity 
of birds and insects proceeds without interruption, each species having 
its own separate times ; the colonies of wasps, for instance, do not die 
off annually, leaving only the queens, as in cold climates; but the 
succession of generations and colonies goes on incessantly. It is never 
either spring, summer, or autumn, but each day is a combination of all 
three. With the day and night always of equal length, the atmospheric 
disturbances of each day neutralising themselves before each succeeding 
morn ; with the sun in its course proceeding midway across the sky, and 
the daily temperature the same within two or three degrees throughout 
the year—how grand in its perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march 
of Nature under the equator ! 
Our evenings were generally fully employed preserving our collections, 
and making notes. We dined at four, and took tea about seven o’clock. 
Sometimes we walked to the city to see Brazilian life, or enjoy the 
pleasures of European and American society. And so the time passed 
away from June 15th to August 26th. During this period we made two 
excursions of greater length to the rice and saw-mills of Magoary, an 
establishment owned by an American gentleman, Mr. Upton, situated 
on the banks of a creek in the heart of the forest, about twelve miles 
from Para. I will narrate some of the incidents of these excursions, 
and give an account of the more interesting observations made on the 
Natural History and inhabitants of these interior creeks and forests. 
Our first trip to the mills was by land. The creek, on whose banks 
they stand, the Iritiri, communicates with the river Para through another 
larger creek, the Magoary ; so that there is a passage by water, but this is 
about twenty miles round. Westarted at sunrise, taking Isidoro with us. 
The road plunged at once into the forest after leaving Nazareth, so that 
in a few minutes we were enveloped in shade. For some distance the 
woods were of second growth, the original forest near the town having 
been formerly cleared or thinned. ‘They were dense and impenetrable, 
on account of the close growth of the young trees and the mass of thorny 
shrubs and creepers. These thickets swarmed with ants and ant- 
thrushes: they were also frequented by a species of puff-throated 
manikin, a little bird which flies occasionally across the road, emitting 
a strange noise, made, I believe, with its wings, and resembling the 
clatter of a small wooden rattle. 
