f= 



Bancroft 



-Bancroft i.lbriy 





PRESERVATKDN 

 COPY ADDED 

 ORIGINAL TO BE 

 RETAINED 



t- 

 X 



NOV 2 1992 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



A RECORD OF ADVENTURES, HABITS OF ANIMALS, SKETCHES OF BRAZILIAN AND 



INDIAN LIFE, AND ASPECTS OF NATURE UNDER THE EQUATOR, DURING 



ELEVEN YEARS OF TRAVEL. 



BY 



HENRY WALTER BATES, F.L.S., 



(Assistant Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society of England.) 



PARTS I. A^ T D II. COMPLETE. 



CHAPTER I. 



PARA. 



Arrival Aspect of the country The ParS river First 

 walk in the suburbs of Para Birds, Lizards, and 

 Insects of the suburbs Leaf-carrying Ant Sketch 

 of the climate, history, and present condition of 

 Para. 



I EMBARKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wal- 

 lace, in a mall trading vessel, on the 26th of 

 April, 1848 ; and, after a swift passage from 

 the Irish Channel to the equator, arrived, on 

 the 26th of May, off Salinas. Thin is the 

 pilot-station for vessels bound to Para, the 

 only port of entry to the vast region watered 

 by the Amazons. It is a small village, for- 

 merly a missionary settlement of the Jesuits, 

 situated a few miles to the eastward of the 

 Para river. Here the ship anchored in the 

 open sea, at a distance of six miles from the 



shore, the shallowness of the water far out 

 around the mouth of the great river not per- 

 mitting in safety a nearer approach ; and the 

 signal was hoisted for a pilot. It was with 

 deep interest that my companion and myself, 

 both now about to see and examine the beau- 

 ties of a tropical country for the first time, 

 gazed on the land where I, at least, eventually 

 spent eleven of the best years of my life. To 

 the eastward the country was not remarkable 

 in appearance, being slightly undulating, 

 with bare sand-hills and scattered trees ; but 

 to the westward, stretching toward the mouth 

 of the river, we could see through the cap- 

 tain's glass a long line of forest, rising appar- 

 ently out of the water ; a densely-packed 

 mas*-; of tall trees, broken into groups, and 

 finally into single trees, as it dwindled away 

 in the distance. This was the frontier, im 



