230 



only motion appearing to be that induced by the tides. Alligators 

 swarm in it like tadpoles in a ditch, and I was not a little surprised 

 to find them extraordinarily active, swimming rapidly about and 

 coming up promptly to snap at an object thrown into the water. 

 The banks of the river are alluvial, and go deeply under water dur- 

 ing the rainy season. 



After ascending the Yauari for some distance we turned off north- 

 eastward into a smaller stream called the Marapi, on the left bank 

 of which, not far from the mouth, is the cattle fazenda of Leocadio 

 Jose Rodrigues, at which I was most hospitably entertained. This 

 fazenda is built on a little knoll, surrounded on all sides by alluvial 

 plains, which are partly open and covered with grass, the rest being 

 forested. 



The serra of Parauaquara is distant, as nearly as I can judge, 

 about twenty miles to the eastward of the fazenda, and in plain 

 sight, but I could find no one who had visited it, and it was even 

 an object of superstitious fear, like the serra of Velha Pobre, which 

 is to-day held to be haunted by a female spirit, to appease which 

 boatmen hang offerings of rags and clothing upon the trees on the 

 banks of the Amazonas at certain localities. I had some difficulty 

 in obtaining guides for the journey, but Sr. Leocadio kindly fur- 

 nished me with a negro and a mulatto, and my party was completed 

 by three young Indians I had brought with me from Prainha. We 

 set out on foot with provisions and water for three days, for we were 

 warned beforehand that we should find no streams on the route. 



For two or three miles eastward from the fazenda our way was 

 through wooded and marshy campos, until we reached a broad, 

 level, open plain, used as a grazing-ground for cattle, in crossing 

 which we were completely covered with myriads of minute cara- 

 pato ticks (Ixodes), from which we with difficulty rid ourselves, an 

 episode that brought up vivid reminiscences and no saiidades of the 

 campos-land of Minos Geraes. The open plains, just described, 

 are represented in Plate VII. by the irregular lake-like patch, 

 near the Amazonas. From the grazing-grounds to Parauaquara, 

 the country, though not high, is very rough, the topography 

 appearing to have resulted from the denudation of soft beds, inter- 

 stratified with which, are thin strata of hard, brown, ferruginous 

 sandstone, blocks of which encumber the ground. A heavy fruit- 

 growth, Avith jungles of the magnificent banana-like pacua-sor- 



