306 EXCURSIONS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cnuap. XI. 
shouting and driving the game before them, in the narrow vestingas or 
strips of dry land in the forest, which are isolated by the flooding of 
their neighbourhood in the wet season. We reached Ega by eight 
o’clock at night. 
e On the 6th of October we left Ega on a second excursion ; the 
principal object of Cardozo being, this time, to search certain pools in 
the forest for young turtle. The exact 'situation of these hidden sheets 
of water is known only to a few practised huntsmen; we took one of 
these men with us from Ega, a mameluco named Pedro, and on our 
way called at Shimunf for Daniel to serve as an additional guide. We 
started from the praia at sunrise on the 7th in two canoes containing 
twenty-three persons, nineteen of whom were Indians. The morning 
was cloudy and cool, and a fresh wind blew from down river, against 
which we had to struggle with all the force of our paddles, aided by the 
current ; the boats were tossed about most disagreeably, and shipped 
a great deal of water. On passing the lower end of Shimunf, a long 
reach of the river was before us, undivided by islands ; a magnificent 
expanse of water stretching away to the south-east. The country on 
the left bank is not, however, ¢erva firma, but a portion of the alluvial 
land which forms the extensive and complex delta region of the Japura. 
It is flooded every year at the time of high water, and is traversed by 
many narrow and deep channels which serve as outlets to the Japurda, 
or at least are connected with that river by means of the interior water 
system of the Cupiydé. This inhospitable tract of country extends for 
several hundred miles, and contains in its midst an endless number of 
pools and lakes tenanted by multitudes of turtles, fishes, alligators, and 
water serpents. Our destination was a point on this coast situated 
about twenty miles below Shimunf, and a short distance from the mouth 
of the Ananda, one of the channels just alluded to as connected with 
the Japura. After travelling for three hours in mid-stream we steered 
for the land, and brought to under a steeply-inclined bank of crumbly 
earth, shaped into a succession of steps or terraces, marking the 
various halts which the waters of the river make in the course of 
subsidence. The coast line was nearly straight for many miles, and the 
bank averaged about thirty feet in height above the present level of the 
river: at the top rose the unbroken hedge of forest. No one could 
have divined that pools of water existed on that elevated land. A 
narrow level space extended at the foot of the bank. On landing the 
first business was to get breakfast. Whilst a couple of Indian lads 
were employed in making the fire, roasting the fish, and boiling the 
coffee, the rest of the party mounted the bank, and with their long 
hunting knives commenced cutting a path through the forest; the pool, 
called the Aningal, being about half a mile distant. After breakfast a 
great number of short poles were cut and were laid crosswise on the 
path, and then three light montarias which we had brought with us were 
dragged up the bank by lianas, and rolled away to be embarked on the 
pool. A large net, seventy yards in length, was then disembarked and 
carried to the place. The work was done very speedily, and when 
Cardozo and I went to the spot at eleven o’clock we found some of 
