THE NATURALIST ON 



RIVER AMAZONS. 



h*.o * rough, brown-colored shell ; the 

 iiuit of the Mauritia, on the contrary, is of a 

 .Aright red hue, and the skin is impressed 

 with deep crossing lines, which give is a re- 

 .semblance to a quilted cricket-ball. 



About midnight, the tide being favorable 

 and the breeze strong, we crossed the river, 

 taking it in a slanting direction, a distance 

 of sixteen miles, and arrived at eight o'clock 

 the following morning at Cameta. This is a 

 town of some importance pleasantly situated 

 on the somewhat high terra firma of the left 

 bank of the Tocantins. I will defer giving 

 41 n account of the place till the end of this 

 narrative of our Tocantins voyage. We lost 

 here another of our men, who got drinking 

 with some old companions ashore, and were 

 obliged to start on the difficult journey up 

 the river with two hands only, and they in 

 , very dissatisfied humor with the prospect. 

 The river view from Cameta is magnifi- 

 cent. The town is situated, as already men- 

 tioned, on a high bank, which forms quite a 

 considerable elevation for this flat country, 

 and the broad expanse of dark-green waters 

 is studded with low, palm-clad islands ; the 

 prospect down river, however, being clear, 

 or bounded only by a sea-like horizon of 

 Tvater and sky. The shores are washed by 

 the breeze-tossed waters into little bays and 

 -creeks, fringed with sandy beaches. The 

 Tocantins has been likened, by Prince Adal- 

 bert of Prussia, who crossed its mouth in 

 1846, to the Ganges. It is upward of ten 

 miles in breadth at its mouth ; opposite 

 Cameta it is five miles broad. Mr. Burchell, 

 the well-known English traveller, descended 

 the river from the mining provinces of in- 

 terior Brazil some years before our visit. 

 Unfortunately, the utility of this fine stream 

 is impaired by the numerous obstructions to 

 its navigation in the shape of cataracts and 

 rapids, which commence, in ascending, at 

 *ibout 120 miles above Cameta, as will be 

 seen in the sequel. 



August 30th. Arrived, in company witb 

 Senhor Laroque, an intelligent Portuguese 

 merchant, at Vista Alegre, fifteen miles above 

 Cameta. This was the residence of Senhor 

 Antonio Ferreira Gomez, and was a fair sam- 

 ple of a Brazilian planter's establishment in 

 this part of the country. The buildings 

 covered a wide space, the dwelling-house 

 being separated from the place of business, 

 and as both were built on low, flooded ground, 

 the communication between the two was by 

 means of a long wooden bridge. From the 

 office and visitors' apartments a wooden pier 

 extended into the river. The whole was 

 raised on piles above high-water mark. 

 There was a rude mil? for grinding sugar- 

 cane, worked by bullocks ; but cashaga, or 

 rum, was the only article manufactured from 

 the juice. Behind the buildings was a small 

 piece of ground cleared from the forest, and 

 planted with fruit-trees, orange, lemon, gen- 

 ipapa, goyava, and others ; and beyond this, 

 a broad path through a neglected plantation 

 of coffee and cacao, ted to several large sheds, 

 where the farinha or mandiocm meal was 



manufactured. The plantations or mandioca 

 are always scattered about in the forest, some 

 of them being on islands in the middle of the 

 river. Land being plentiful, and the plough, 

 as well as, indeed, nearly all other agricul- 

 tural implements, unknown, the same ground 

 is not planted three years together ; but a 

 new piece of forest is cleared every alternate 

 year, and the old clearing suffered to relapse 

 into jungle. 



We stayed here two days, sleeping ashore 

 in the apartment devoted to strangers. As 

 usual in Brazilian houses of the middle class, 

 we were not introduced to the female mem- 

 bers of the family, and, indeed, saw nothing 

 of then except at a distance. In the forest 

 and thickets about the place we were toler- 

 ably successful in collecting, finding a num- 

 ber of birds and insects which do not occur 

 at Para. I saw here, for the first time, the 

 ,!*.} bluf* Chatterer (Ampelis cotiuga). It 

 was on the topmost bough of a very lofty 

 tree, and completely out cf the reach of an 

 ordinary fowling-piece. The beautiful light- 

 blue color of its plumage was plainly discern- 

 ible at that distance. It is a dull, quiet bird. 

 A much commoner species was the Cigana 

 or Gypsy (Opisthocomus cristalus), a bird be- 

 longing to the same order (Gallinacea) as our 

 domestic fowl. It is about the size of a 

 pheasant; the plumage is dark brown, varied 

 with reddish, and the head is adorned with a 

 crest of long feathers. It is a remarkable 

 bird in many respects. The hind toe is riot 

 placed high above the level of the other toes, 

 as it is in the fowl order generally, but lies 

 on the same plane with them ; the shape of 

 the foot becomes thus suited to the purely 

 arboreal habits of the bird, enabling it. to 

 grasp firmly the branches of trees. This is a 

 distinguishing character of all the birds in. 

 equinoctial America which represent the 

 fowl and pheasant tribes of the old world, 

 and affords another proof of the adaptation 

 of the Fauna to a forest region. The Cigana 

 Jives in considerable flocks on the lower trees 

 and bushes bordering the streams and lagoons, 

 and feeds on various wild fruits, especially 

 the sour Goya va(Psidi urn sp.). The natives 

 say it devours the fruit of arborescent Arums 

 (Caladium arborescens), which grow in 

 crowded masses around the swampy banks 

 of lagoons. Its voice is a harsh, grating 

 hiss ; it makes the noise when alarmed, all 

 the individuals sibilating as they fly heavily 

 away from tree to tree, when disturbed by 

 passing canoes. It is polygamous, like other 

 members of the same order. It is never, 

 however, by any chance, seen on the ground, 

 and is nowhere domesticated. The flesh has 

 an unpleasant odor of musk combined with 

 wet hides a smell called by the Brazilians 

 cfetinga ; it is, therefore, uneatable. If it be 

 as unpalatable to carnivorous animals as it is 

 to man, the immunity from persecution 

 which it would thereby enjoy would account 

 for its existing in such great numbers 

 throughout the country. 



We lost here another of our crew ; and 

 _thus. ac the commencement of our voyage, 



