Cuap. IV. ARRIVAL AT PATOS. 67 
assist in paddling the canoes, do the cooking, and sometimes fish with 
rod and line. The weather is enjoyable the whole time, and so days 
and weeks pass happily away. 
One of the men volunteered to walk with us into the forest, and 
show us a few cedar trees. We passed through a mile or two of spiny 
thickets, and at length came upon the banks of the rivulet Trocard, 
which flows over a stony bed, and, about a mile above its mouth, 
falls over a ledge of rocks, thus forming a very pretty cascade. In the 
neighbourhood we found a number of specimens of a curious land-shell, 
a large flat Helix, with a labyrinthine mouth (Anastoma). We learnt 
afterwards that it was a species which had been discovered a few years 
previously by Dr. Gardner, the botanist, on the upper part of the 
Tocantins. 
At Patos we stayed three days. In the woods we found a number 
of conspicuous insects new to us. Three species of Pieris were the 
most remarkable. We afterwards learnt that they occurred also in 
Venezuela and in the south of Brazil; but they are quite unknown 
in the alluvial plains of the Amazons. We saw, for the first time, 
the splendid Hyacinthine macaw (Macrocercus hyacinthinus, Lath., the 
Araruna of the natives), one of the finest and rarest species of the 
Parrot family. It only occurs in the interior of Brazil, from 16° S. lat. 
to the southern border of the Amazons valley. It is three feet long 
from the beak to the tip of the tail, and is entirely of a soft hyacinthine 
blue colour, except round the eyes, where the skin is naked and white. 
It flies in pairs, and feeds on the hard nuts of several palms, but 
especially of the Mucuja (Acrocomia lasiospatha). These nuts, which 
are so hard as to be difficult to break with a heavy hammer, are crushed 
to a pulp by the powerful beak of this macaw. 
Mr. Leavens was thoroughly disgusted with the people of Patos. 
Two men had come from below with the intention, I believe, of 
engaging with us, but they now declined. ‘The inspector, constable, or 
governor of the place appeared to be a very slippery customer ; and I 
fancy discouraged the men from going, whilst making a great show 
of forwarding our views. ‘These outlying settlements are the resort of 
a number of idle, worthless characters. There was a kind of festival 
going on, and the people fuddled themselves with caxiri, an intoxicating 
drink invented by the Indians. It is made by soaking mandioca cakes 
in water until fermentation takes place, and tastes like new beer. 
Being unable to obtain men, Mr. Leavens now gave up his project 
of ascending the river as far as the Araguaya. He assented to our 
request, however, to ascend to the cataracts near Arroyos. We started 
therefore from Patos with a more definite aim before us than we had 
hitherto had. The river became more picturesque as we advanced. 
The water was very low, it being now the height of the dry season ; 
the islands were smaller than those farther down, and some of them 
were high and rocky. Bold wooded bluffs projected into the stream, 
and all the shores were fringed with beaches of glistening white sand. 
On one side of the river there was an extensive grassy plain or campo, 
with isolated patches of trees scattered over it. On the 14th and 
following day we stopped several times to ramble ashore. Qur longest 
