THE NATURALIST ON THE RIYER AMAZONS. 



pirarecfi, beans, and bacon. Once or twice 

 =a week we had fowls and rice ; at supper, 

 safter sunset, we often had fresh fish caught 

 <by our men in the evening. The mornings 

 were cool and pleasant until toward mw- 

 <iay ; but in the afternoons the heat became 

 almost intolerable, especially in gleamy, 

 equally weather, such as generally prevailed. 

 We then crouched in the shade of the sails, 

 or went dowuto our hammocks in the cabin, 

 ^choosing to be half stifled rather rtian expose 

 ourselves on deck to the sickening heat of 

 the sun. We generally ceased travelling 

 about nine o'clock, fixing upon a safe spot 

 Tvheiein to secure the vessel for the night. 

 The cool evening hours were delicious ; 

 flocks of whistling ducks (Anas autumnalis), 

 parrots, and hoarsely - screaming macaws, 

 pair by pair, flew ever from their feeding to 

 their resting places, as the glowing sun 

 plunged abruptly beneath the hoiizon. The 

 brief evening chorus of animals then began, 

 1he chief performers being the howling mon- 

 keys, whose frightful unearthly roar deepened 

 the feeling of solitude which crept on as 

 darkness closed around us. Soon after, the 

 fireflies in great diversity of species came 

 forth and flitted about the trees. As night 

 advanced, all became silent in the forest, 

 ave the occasional hooting of tree-froers, or 

 the monotonous chirping of wood-crickets 

 and grasshoppers. 



We made hut little progress on the 20th 

 and two following days, on account of the 

 unsteadiness of the wind. The dry season 

 had been of very brief duration this year ; it 

 .generally lasts in this part of the Amazons 

 from July to January, with a short interval 

 of showery wea^r in November. The river 

 ought to sink thirty or thirty-five feet below 

 its highest point ; this year it had declined 

 only about twenty-five feet, and the Novem- 

 fcer rains threatened to be continuous. The 

 -drier the weather, the stronger blows the east 

 wind ; it now failed us altogether, or blew 

 gently for a few hours merely in the after- 

 noons. I had hitherto seen the great river 

 only in its sunniest aspect ; I was now about 

 to witness what it could furnish in the way 

 <of storms. 



On the night of the 22d the moon appeared 

 with a misty halo. As we went to rest, a 

 fresh watery wind was blowing, and a dark 

 pile of clouds gathering up river in a di- 

 rection opposite to that of the wind. I 

 thought this betokened nothing more than a 

 heavy rain, which would send us all in a 

 luirry to our cabins. The men moored the 

 vessel to a tret? alongside a hard clayey bank, 

 aind after supper all were soon fast asleep, 

 scattered about the raised deck. About 

 eleven o'clock I was awakened by a horrible 

 uproar, as a hurricane of wind suddenly 

 swept over from the opposite shore. The 

 cuberta was hurled with force against the 

 clayey bank ; Penna shouted out, as he 

 started to his legs, that a trovoada de cima, 

 or a squall from up river, was upon us. We 

 took down our hammocks, and then all 

 hands were required to save the vessel from 



being dashed to pieces. The moon set, anil 

 a black pall of "louds spread itself over the 

 dark forests and river ; a frightful crack of 

 thunder now bursts over our heads, and 

 down fell the drenching rain. Joaquim leaped 

 ashore through the drowning spray with a 

 strong pole, and tried to pass the cuberta 

 round a small projecting point, while we on 

 deck aided in keeping her off and lengthened 

 the cable. We succeeded in getting free, 

 and the stout- built boat fell off into the strong 

 current farther away from the shore, 

 Joaquim swinging himself dexterously 

 iboard by the bowsprit as it passed the point. 

 It was fortunate for us that we happened to 

 be on a sloping clayey bank, where there 

 was no fear of falling trees ; a few yards 

 faitheron, where the shore was perpendic- 

 ular and formed of crumbly earth, large por- 

 tions of loose soil, with all their superincum- 

 bent mass of forest, were being washed 

 away ; the uproar thus occasioned adding to 

 the horrors of the storm. 



The violence of the wind abated in the 

 course of an hour, but the deluge of rain 

 continued until about three oV-lock in the 

 morning ; the sky being lighted up by al- 

 most incessant flashes of "pallid lightning, 

 and the thunder pealing from side to side 

 without interruption. Our clothing, ham- 

 mocks, and goods were thoroughly soaked by 

 the streams of water which trickled through 

 between the planks. In the morning all was 

 quiet ; but an opaque, leaden mass of clouds 

 overspread the sky, throwing a gloom over 

 the wild landscape that had a most dispirit- 

 ing effect. These squalls from the west are 

 always expected about the time of the break- 

 ing up of the dry season, in these central 

 parts of the Lower Amazons. They gener- 

 ally take place about the beginning of Feb- 

 ruary, so that this year they had commenced 

 much earlier than usual. The soil and cli- 

 mate are much drier in this part of the coun- 

 try than in the region lying farther to the 

 west, where the denser forests and more 

 clayey, humid soil produce a considerably 

 cooler atmosphere. The storms may be 

 therefore attributed to the rush of cold moist 

 air from up river, when the regular trade- 

 wind coming from the sea has slackened or 

 ceased to blow. 



On the 26th we arrived at a large sand- 

 bank connected with an island in mid-river, 

 in front of an inlet called Maracauassu. 

 Here we anchored and spent half a day 

 ashore. Penua's object in stopping was <>im 

 ply to enjoy a ramble on the sands with the 

 children, and give Senhora Katita au oppor- 

 tunity to wash the linen. The sand-bank was 

 now fast going under water with the rise of 

 the river ; in the middle of the dry season iu 

 is about a mile long and half a mile in width. 

 The canoe-men delight in these open spaces, 

 which are a great relief to the monotony of 

 the forest that clothes the land in e very- 

 other part of the river. Farther westward 

 they are much more frequent, and of larger 

 extent. They lie generally at the upper end 

 oj isluuda ; in fact, the latter originate in ac- 



