366 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Cuap. X11. 
mouth of the Japurd, on the same side of the Solimoens, I saw, to my 
surprise, a bed of stratified rock, apparently a fine-grained sandstone, 
exposed on the banks of the river. It was elevated not more than 
three or four feet above the present level of the river, which was now, 
the season having been an unusually wet one, about half full. I had 
not seen rocks of any kind on the river banks since leaving Manacapuru, 
450 miles distant, and this bed seems to have escaped the notice of 
Spix and Poeppig. ‘The bank, at the foot of which alone the rock was 
visible, was connected with a tract of land lying higher than the purely 
alluvial district that extends eastward to a distance of several hundred 
miles, and was clothed with the rounded, dark-green forest which is 
distinctive of the ferva firmas of the Amazons valley. The slightly 
elevated land continues, with scarcely a break, to the mouth of the 
Tunantins, which we entered, after making a long circuit to avoid a 
shoal, on the 11th of November. 
November 11th to 30th.—The Tunantins is a sluggish black-water 
stream, about sixty miles in length, and towards its mouth from 100 to 200 
yards in breadth. ‘The vegetation on its banks has a similar aspect to 
that of the Rio Negro, the trees having small foliage of a sombre hue, 
and the dark piles of greenery resting on the surface of the inky water. 
The village is situated on the left bank, about a mile from the mouth of 
the river, and contains twenty habitations, nearly all of which are merely 
hovels, built of lath-work and mud. The short streets, after rain, are 
almost impassable, on account of the many puddles, and are choked up 
with weeds,—leguminous shrubs, and scarlet-flowered asclepias. The 
atmosphere in such a place, hedged in as it is by the lofty forest, and 
surrounded by swamps, is always close, warm, and reeking ; and the 
hum and chirp of insects and birds cause a continual din. The 
small patch of weedy ground around the village swarms with plovers, 
sandpipers, striped herons, and scissor-tailed flycatchers ; and alligators 
are always seen floating lazily on the surface of the river in front of the 
houses. 
On landing, I presented myself to Senhor Paulo Bitancourt, a good- 
natured half-caste, director of Indians of the neighbouring river Issa, 
who quickly ordered a small house to be cleared for me. This 
exhilarating abode contained only one room, the walls of which were 
disfigured by large and ugly patches of mud, the work of white ants. 
The floor was the bare earth, dirty and damp; the wretched chamber 
was darkened by a sheet of calico being stretched over the windows, a 
plan adopted here to keep out the Piim-flies, which float about in all 
shady places like thin clouds of smoke, rendering all repose impossible 
in the daytime whenever they can effect an entrance. My baggage was 
soon landed, and before the steamer departed I had taken gun, insect- 
net, and game bag, to make a preliminary exploration of my new 
locality. 
I remained here nineteen days, and, considering the shortness of the 
time, made a very good collection of monkeys, birds, and insects. A 
considerable number of the species (especially of insects) were different 
from those of the four other stations, which I examined on the south 
