496 Miscellaneous. 



ourselves in the black waters — black as ink tliey are, and well deserve 

 their name ; the shores are rugged and picturesque — and greatest 

 luxury of all, mosquitoes are unknown except in the islands. Our 

 voyage, however, was not near so bad as it might have been, for Mr. 

 Spruce, who left Santarem for Obidos exactly a week before us, arrived 

 there only the evening before, having taken nine days owing to the 

 want of wind, vdthout which it is impossible to stem the current. 

 We are here staying vdth Sir Henrique Anthony, in the same house 

 Edwards occupied ; he is a most hospitable fellow, and his house is the 

 general receptacle of strangers. I soon found that insects were ex- 

 ceedingly scarce here at this season, it being almost impossible to get 

 half a dozen in a day worth bringing home. Birds too are equally 

 scarce, so I resolved on a short trip up the Rio Negro to where the 

 Umbrella chatterers are found. I spent a month there, and being 

 fortunate in finding a good hunter, have got a small but pretty good 

 collection of birds, considering the season. 



" With regard to living animals, &c., it is quite impossible to send 

 them from here. At Para they can only be bought at such high 

 prices as not to make it worth the risk. The captains too require 

 half the price for the passage. I had intended, if I could have been 

 now on my voyage up the Rio Negro, to have returned about next 

 Christmas, getting all the live animals I could on the waj^ and coming 

 home myself with them, calculating that I could get svifficient to pay all 

 expenses to England and back ; but I do not think now I shall do so, 

 as I shall probably not be able to start for the frontiers till June or 

 July, and it is nearly a two months' voyage. If therefore sufficient 

 funds arrive by that time, I shall probably stay up in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Cassiquiare a year, and then on returning to Barra see 

 about a journey up towards the Andes. I am anxiously waiting also 

 to know about the fish and reptiles, as I do not want to get more if 

 they do not pay. 



" Besides the umbrella birds, the little bristle-tailed manakin will, I 

 think, be good ; also the trumpeter, which is a species different from 

 that at Para ; the muscoAy ducks also. Both among the birds and 

 insects there are, I know, many common as well as rare species. There 

 are also two bad specimens of the celebrated " bell bird," which I 

 believe is rare ; they frequent the highest trees out of ordinary gun- 

 shot ; my hunter fired five or six times at each of them, and after 

 several ineffectual shots at another gave it up in despair. Of the curl- 

 crested ara^ari, I have only at present got a single specimen. The 

 ara9aris I send are two species new to me, and are both much prettier 

 than the curl-crested. I must now not forget to thank you for the 

 prints you sent me, which I only discovered a short time ago, never 

 having opened the box containing them. Any newspapers or scien- 

 tific periodicals you can send me vdll be particularly acceptable." 



On the Occurrence q/Regalecus glesne at Redcar, Yorkshire, in 1850. 

 By J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S. 



A specimen of this fish was cast ashore on Redcar Sands, York- 

 shire, on Thursday, the 3rd of January 1850. " The fish was alive 



