THE NATURALIST ON THE UIVER AMAZONS. 



669 



when excited. The men returned with a 

 large quantity of fish. I was surprised at the 

 great variety of species ; the prevailing kind 

 was a species of Loricaria, a foot in length, 

 and wholly encased iu bony armor. It 

 abounds at certain seasons in shallow water. 

 The flesh is dry, but very palatable. They 

 brought also a small alligator, which they 

 called Jacare curua, and said it was a kind 

 found only in shallow creeks. It was not 

 more than two feet in length, although full- 

 grown, according to the statement of the In- 

 dians, who said it was a " mai d'ovos," or 

 mother of egg^j, as they had pillaged the 

 nest, which they had found near the edge of 

 the water. The eggs were rather larger than 

 a hen's, and regularly oval in shape, present- 

 ing a rough hard surface of shell. Unfortu- 

 nately, the al ] igator was cut up ready for 

 cooking when we returned to the schooner, 

 and I could not therefore make a note of its 

 peculiarities. The pieces were skewered and 

 roasted over the fire, each man being his 

 own cook. I never saw this species of alli- 

 gator afterward. 



October 3d. About midnight the wind, for 

 which we had long been waiting, sprang up, 

 the men weighed anchor, arid we were soon 

 fairly embarked on the Amazons. I rose 

 long before sunrise, to see the great river by 

 moonlight. There was a spanking breeze, 

 and the vessel was bounding gayly over the 

 waters. The channel along which we were 

 sailing was only a narrow arm of the river, 

 about two miles in width ; the total breadth 

 at this point is more than twenty miles, but 

 the stream is divided into three parts by a 

 series of large islands. The river, notwith- 

 standing this limitation of its breadth, had a 

 most majestic appearance. It did not pre- 

 sent that lake-like aspect which the waters of 

 the Para and Tocantins affect, but had all 

 the swing, so to spoak, of a vast flowing 

 stream. The ochre-colorud turbid waters 

 offered also a great contrast to the rivers be- 

 longing to the Para system. The channel 

 formed a splendid reach, sweeping from 

 south-west to north-east, with a horizon of 

 water and sky both up stream and down. 

 At eleven A.M we arrived at Gurupa, a small 

 village situated on a rocky bank 30 or 40 feet 

 high. Here we landed, and I had an oppor- 

 tunity of rambling in the neighboring woods, 

 which are intersected by numerous path- 

 ways, carpeted with Lycopodia growing to a 

 height of 8 or 10 inches, and enlivened by 

 numbers of glossy blue butterflies of the 

 Theclidoe or hair-streak family. At five 

 P.M. we were again under weigh. Soon 

 after sunset, as we were crossing the mouth 

 of the Xingu, the first of the great tributaries 

 of the Amazons, 1200 miles in length, a 

 black cloud arose suddenly in the north-east. 

 JoaO da Cunba ordered all sails to be taken 

 in, and immediately afterward a furious 

 squall burst forth, tearing the waters into 

 foam, and producing a frightful uproar m 

 the neighboring forests. A drenching rain 

 followed, but in half an hour all was again 

 calm, and the full moon appeared sailing iu 



a cloudless sky. 



From the mouth of the Xingu the route 

 followed by vessels leads straight across the 

 river, here fen miles broad. Toward mid- 

 night the wind failed us, wher we were close 

 to a large shoal called the Baixo Grande. We 

 lay here becalmed in the sickening heat for 

 two days, and whea the trade- wind recom- 

 menced with the rising moon at ten P.M. on 

 the 6th, we found ourselves on a lee-shore. 

 Notwithstanding all the efforts of our pilot 

 to avoid it, we ran aground. Fortunately, 

 the bottom consisted only of soft mud, sa 

 that by casting anchor to windward, and 

 hauling iu with the whole strength of crew 

 and passengers, we got off after spending an 

 uncomfortable night. We rounded the point 

 of the shoal iu two fathoms water ; the head 

 of the vessel was then put westward, and by 

 sunrise we were bounding forward before a 

 steady breeze, all sail set and everybody in 

 good humor. 



The weather was now delightful for seve- 

 ral days in succession, the air transparently 

 cfear, and the breeze cool and invigorating. 

 At daylight, on the 6th, a chain of blue hills, 

 the Serra de Almeyrirn, appeared in the dis- 

 tance, on the north bank of the river. The 

 sight was most exhilarating after so long a 

 sojourn in a flat country. We kept to the 

 southern shore, passing in the course of the 

 day the mouths of the Urucuricaya and the 

 Aquiqui, two channels which communicate 

 with the Xingu. The whole of this southern 

 coast hence to near Santarem, a distance of 

 130 miles, is lowland and quite uninhabited. 

 It is intersected by short arms or back-waters 

 of the Amazons, which are called in the 

 Tupi language Parana mirims, or little riv- 

 ers. By keeping to these, small canoes can 

 travel a great part of the diatance without 

 being much exposed to the heavy seas of the 

 main river. The coast throughout has a 

 most desolate aspect ; the forest is not so va- 

 ried as on the higher land, and the water- 

 frontage, which is destitute of the green 

 mantle of climbing plants that form ec rich 

 a decoration in other parts, is encumbered at 

 every step with piles of fallen trees, peopled 

 by white egrets, ghostly storks, and solitary 

 herons. In the evening we passed Almey- 

 rim. The hills, according to Von Martius, 

 who landed here, are about 800 feet above 

 the level of the river, and are thickly wooded 

 to the summit. They commence on the east 

 by a few low, isolated, and rounded eleva- 

 tions ; but toward the west of the village 

 they assume the appearance of elongated 

 ridges, which seem as if they had been 

 planed down to a uniform height by some ex- 

 ternal force. The next day we passed in [ 

 succession a series of similar flat-topped 

 hills, some isolated and of a truncated-pyra- 

 midal shape, others prolonged to a length of 

 several miles. There is an interval of low 

 country between these and the Almeyrim 

 range, which has a total length of about 25 

 miles : then commences abiuplly the Serra 

 de M-irauqua, which is succeeded in a simi- 

 liir way by tho Vulha Pobie range, the Serras 



