1864. | Barers’s Naturalist on the Amazons. 185 
road made for the occasion. The casca turned out a success. Add to 
all this the plagues of fire-ants—Tabani, which, by twos and threes at 
a time, dug their probosces, half-an-inch long and sharp as a needle, 
through the long thick cotton shirt upon their backs, making them cry 
out under the infliction, and a host of other inconveniences ; and it 
will be seen that natural-history collecting upon the Amazons is no 
child’s play. 
Some curious adventures with serpents rewarded this excursion. 
On one occasion an Anaconda (Eunectes murinus), 18 feet 9 inches 
long, was systematically hunted and despatched with harpoons; and 
he appears to credit reports of similar serpents having been found 
42 feet long. Moreover, the natives are not without faith in the ex- 
istence of a great Amazonian serpent, rivalling the great sea-serpent 
itself in magnitude. On another occasion, “ whilst pinning an insect, 
I was rather startled by a rushing noise in the vicinity. I looked up 
to the sky, thinking a squall was coming on, but not a breath of wind 
stirred in the tree tops. On stepping out of the bushes, I met face to 
face a huge serpent (Boa Constrictor) coming down a slope, and 
making the dry twigs crack and fly with his weight as he moved over 
them. I had very frequently met with a smaller boa, the Cutim boa, 
and knew from the habits of the family that there was no danger; so 
I stood my ground. On seeing me, the reptile suddenly turned, and 
glided at an accelerated pace down the path. Wishing to take a note 
of his probable size, and the colours and markings of his skin, I set 
off after him, but he increased his speed, and I was unable to get near 
enough for the purpose. There was very little of the serpentine move- 
ment in his course. The rapidly moving and shining body looked 
like a stream of brown liquid flowing over the thick bed of falling 
leaves, rather than a serpent with a skin of varied colours. The huge 
trunk of an uprooted tree here lay across the road; this he glided 
over on his undeviating course, and soon after penetrated a dense 
swampy thicket, where, of course, I did not choose to follow him.” 
Having stayed about three years and a half at Santarem, and in its 
neighbourhood, Mr. Bates proceeded to Ega, on the Upper Amazon, 
or Solimoens, and this distant spot, 1,200 miles from Parad, he made 
his head-quarters for no less than four-and-a-half years, making during 
that period, however, excursions of 300 and 400 miles’ distance from 
it. An arduous journey of 55 days from Santarem brought our tra- 
veller to Ega, where, far from civilized life, he was often put to great 
shifts, from the failure of communication and remittances from Europe. 
From the inhabitants he met with civility and kindness, and although 
never troubled with impertinent curiosity on their part, his pursuits 
could not fail to arouse some speculation. The Indians and half- 
castes complacently thought it but natural that strangers should collect 
and send abroad the beautiful birds and insects of their country, uni- 
versally concluding that the butterflies were wanted as patterns for 
bright-coloured calico prints. We can sympathize with the noble 
endurance of Mr. Bates, in spite of the difficulty of getting news, the 
want of intellectual society, and, towards the latter part of his resi- 
