634 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



ten o'clock, and which had increased in force 

 with the increasing power of the sun, would 

 flag and finally die away. The heat and 

 electric tension of the atmosphere would then 

 become almost insupportable. Languor and 

 uneasiness would seize on every one ; even 

 the denizens of the forest betraying it by 

 their motions. White clouds would appear 

 in the east and gather into cumuli, with an 

 increasing blackness along their lower por- 

 tions. The whole eastern horizon would be- 

 come almost suddenly black, and this would 

 spread upward, the sun at length becoming 

 obscured. Then the rush of a mighty wind 

 is heard through the forest, swaying the tree- 

 tops ; a vivid flash of lightning bursts forth, 

 thea a crash of thunder, and down streams 

 the deluging ^ain. Such storms soon cease, 

 leaviag bluish-black motionless clouds in the 

 sky until night. Meantime all nature is re- 

 freshed ; but heaps of flower-petals and fall- 

 en leaves are seen under the trees. Toward 

 evening life revives again, and the ringing 

 uproar is resumed from bush and tree. v fhe 

 following morning the sun again rises in a 

 cloudless sky, and so the cycle is completed ; 

 spring, summer, and autumn, as it were, in 

 one tropical day. The days are more or less 

 like this throughout the year in this country. 

 A little difference exists between the dry and 

 wet seasons ; but generally, the dry season, 

 which lasts from July to December, is varied 

 with showers, and the wet, from January to 

 June, with sunny da}-s. It results from this 

 that the periodical phenomena of plants and 

 animals do not take place at about the same 

 time in all species, or in the individuals of 

 any given species, as they do in temperate 

 countries. Of course there is no hiberna- 

 tion ; nor, as the dry season is not excessive, 

 is there any summer torpidity as in some 

 tropical countries. Plants do not flower or 

 shed their leaves, nor do birds moult, pair, 

 or breed simultaneously. In Europe, a wood- 

 land scene has its spring, its summer, its 

 autumnal, and its winter aspects. In the 

 equatorial forests the aspect is the same or 

 nearly so every day in the year : budding 

 flowering, fruiting, and leaf shedding are al- 

 ways going on in one species or other. The 

 activity of birds and insects proceeds without 

 interruption, each species having its own 

 separate times ; the colonies of wasps, for 

 instance, cfo not die off annually, leaving only 

 the queens, as in cold climates ; but the suc- 

 cession of generations and colonies goes on 

 incessantly. It is never either spring, sum- 

 mer, or autumn, but each day is a combina- 

 tion of all three. With the day and night al- 

 ways of equal length, the atmospheric dis- 

 turbances of each day neutralizing themselves 

 before each succeeding morn ; with the sun 

 in its course proceeding midway across the 

 sky, and the daily temperature the same 

 within two or three degrees throughout the 

 year how grand in its perfect equilibrium 

 and simplicity is the march of Nature under 

 the equator ! 



Our evenings were generally fully em- 

 ployed preserving our collections and muk- . 



ing notes. We dined at four, and took tea 

 about seven o'clock. Sometimes we walked 

 to the city to see Brazilian life or enjoy ih& 

 pleasures of European and American society. 

 And so the time passed away from June lo'L 

 to August 26th. During /l.his peri d we 

 made two excursions of greater length to the 

 rice and saw-mills of Magoary, an establish- 

 ment owned by an American gentleman, Mr. 

 Upton, situated on the banks of a creek in. 

 the heart^ of the forest, about twelve miles. 

 from Pata. 1 will narrate some ot the inci- 

 dents of these excursions, and give an ac- 

 count of the more interesting observations 

 made on the natural history and inhabitants 

 of these interior creeks and forests. 



Our first trip to the mills was by land. 

 The creek on whose banks they stand, the 

 Iritiri, communicates with the river Para 

 through another larger creek, the Magoaiy - r 

 so that there is a passage by water, but this. 

 is about twenty miles round. We started at 

 sunrise, taking Isidoro with us. The road 

 plunged at once into the forest after having 

 Nazareth, so that in a few minutes we were 

 enveloped in shade. For some distance the 

 woods were of second growth, the original 

 forest near the town having been formeilv 

 cleared or thinned. They were dense an-l 

 impenetrable on account of the close grow tit. 

 of the young trees and the mass of thornv 

 shrubs and creepers. These thickets swarmed 

 with ants and ant-thrushes : they weie also* 

 frequented by a species of puff -throated man- 

 ikin, a little bird which flies occasionally" 

 across the road, emitting a strange noise, 

 made, I believe, witJt the wings, and resem- 

 bling the clatter of a small wooden rattle. 



A mile or a mile and a half further on, the 

 character of the woods began to change, and 

 we then found ourselves in the primeval 

 forest. The appearance was greatly diff eren 4 

 from that of the swampy tract I have aireacy 

 described. The land was rather more ele- 

 vated and undulating ; the many swamp 

 plants with their long and broad leaves were 

 wanting, and there was less underwood, al- 

 though the trees were wider apart. Through 

 this wilderness the road continued for seven 

 or eight miles. The same unbroken forest 

 extends all the way to Maranham and in ether 

 directions, as we were told, a distance of 

 about 300 miles southward and eastward of 

 Para. In almost every hollow part the road: 

 was crossed by a brook, whose cold, daik, 

 leaf -stained waters were bridged over by i tee- 

 trunks. The ground was carpeted, as usual, 

 by Lycopodiums, but it was also incumbeied. 

 with masses of vegetable debris and a thick 

 coating of dead leaves. Fruits of many kinds 

 were scattered about, among which were 

 many sorts of beans, some of the pods a foot- 

 long, flat and leathery in texture, others hard 

 as stone. In one place there was a quantity 

 of large empty wooden vessels, which Isidora 

 told us fell from the Sapucaya tree. They 

 are called monkeys' drinking-cups (Cuyas de 

 Maccao), and are the capsules which contain 

 the nuts sold under the names just mentioned, 

 in Covent Garden Market. At the too of the 



