192 SANTAREM. Cuap. VIJI. 
on the beach. I have reason to remember these storms, for I was once 
caught in one myself, whilst crossing the river in an undecked boat, 
about a day’s journey from Santarem. They are accompanied with 
terrific electric explosions, the sharp claps of thunder falling almost 
simultaneously with the blinding flashes of lightning. Torrents of rain 
follow the first outbreak ; the wind then gradually abates, and the rain 
subsides into a steady drizzle, which continues often for the greater part 
of the succeeding day. After a week or two of showery weather the 
aspect of the country is completely changed. The parched ground in 
the neighbourhood of Santarem breaks out, so to speak, ina rash of © 
greenery: the dusty, languishing trees gain, without having shed their 
old leaves, a new clothing of tender green foliage ; a wonderful variety 
of quick-growing leguminous plants spring up, and leafy creepers over- 
run the ground, the bushes, and the trunks of trees. One is reminded 
of the sudden advent of spring after a few warm showers in northern 
climates ; I was the more struck by it as nothing similar is witnessed 
in the virgin forests amongst which I had passed the four years previous 
to my stay in this part. The grass on the campos is renewed, and 
many of the campo trees, especially the myrtles, which grow abundantly 
in one portion of the district, begin to flower, attracting by the fragrance 
of their blossoms a great number and variety of insects, more particularly 
Coleoptera. Many kinds of birds, parrots, toucans, and barbets, which 
live habitually in the forest, then visit the open places. A few weeks 
of comparatively dry weather generally intervene in March after a month 
or two of rain. The heaviest rains fall in April, May, and June; they 
come in a succession of showers, with sunny gleamy weather in the 
intervals. June and July are the months when the leafy luxuriance of 
the campos, and the activity of life, are at their highest. Most birds 
have then completed their moulting, which extends over the period from 
February to May. The flowering shrubs are then mostly in bloom, and 
numberless kinds of Dipterous and Hymenopterous insects appear 
simultaneously with the flowers. ‘This season might be considered the 
equivalent of summer in temperate climates, as the bursting forth of the 
foliage in February represents the spring ; but under the equator there 
is not that simultaneous march in the annual life of animals and plants 
which we see in high latitudes ; some species, it is true, are dependent 
upon others in their periodical acts of life, and go hand-in-hand with 
them, but they are not all simultaneously and similarly affected by the 
physical changes of the seasons. 
I will now give an account of some of my favourite collecting places 
in the neighbourhood of Santarem, incorporating with the description a 
few of the more interesting observations made on the Natural History 
of the localities. To the west of the town there was a pleasant path 
along the beach to a little bay, called Mapiri, about five miles within 
the mouth of the Tapajos. The road was practicable only in the dry 
season. The river at Santarem rises on the average about thirty feet, 
varying in different years about ten feet; so that in the four months 
from April to July the water comes up to the edge of the marginal belt 
of wood already spoken of. ‘This Mapir{f excursion was most pleasant 
