Cuap. IX. 
A TROPICAL AFTERNOON. 249 
that I heard for the first and almost the only time the uproar of life at 
sunset, which Humboldt describes as having witnessed towards the 
sources of the 

Needle-fish 
(Hemaramphus). 
Orinoco, but which is unknown on the banks of the 
larger rivers. ‘The noises of animals began just as the 
sun sank behind the trees after a sweltering afternoon, 
leaving the sky above of the intensest shade of blue. 
Two flocks of howling monkeys, one close to our canoe, 
the other about a furlong distant, filled the echoing 
forests with their dismal roaring. Troops of parrots, 
including the hyacinthine macaw we were in search of, 
began then to pass over; the different styles of cawing 
and screaming of the various species making 
a terrible discord. Added to these noises 
were the songs of strange Cicadas, one large 
kind perched high on the trees around our 
little haven setting up a most piercing chirp; 
it began with the usual harsh jarring tone of 
its tribe, but this gradually and rapidly became § 
shriller, until it ended in a long and loud note 
resembling the steam-whistle of a locomotive | 
engine. Half a dozen of these wonderful 
performers made a considerable item in the 
evening concert. I had heard the same 
species before at Parad, but it was there very 
uncommon: we obtained here one of them 
for my collection by a lucky blow with a 
stone. The uproar of beasts, birds, and 
insects lasted but a short time: the sky 
quickly lost its intense hue, and the night 
set in. Then began the tree-frogs—quack- 
quack, drum-drum, hoo-hoo; these, accom- 
panied by a melancholy night-jar, kept up their 
monotonous cries until very late. 
My men encountered on the banks of the 
stream a Jaguar and a black Tiger, and were 
very much afraid of falling in with the 
Pararauates, so that I could not, after their 
return on the fourth day, induce them to 
undertake another journey. We began our descent of 
the river in the evening of the 26th of August. At night 
forest and river were again enveloped in mist, and the 
air before sunrise was quite cold. ‘There is a consider- 
able current from the falls to the house of Joa6 Aract, 
and we accomplished the distance, with its aid and by 
rowing, in seventeen hours. 
September 21st.—At five o’clock in the afternoon we 
emerged from the confined and stifling gully through 

Sarapo 
(Carapus). 
which the Cupari flows, into the broad Tapajos, and breathed freely 
again. How I enjoyed the extensive view, after being solong pent up: 
the mountainous coasts, the gray distance, the dark waters tossed by 
