688 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



tinge of the water seems to be derived from 

 the saturation in it of the dark green foliage 

 during these annual inundations. The great 

 contrast in form and color between the for- 

 ests of the Rio Negro and those of the Ama- 

 zons arises from the predominance in each pt 

 different families of plants. On the main 

 liver palms of twenty or thirty different 

 species form a great proportion of the mass 

 of trees, while on the Rio Negro they play a 

 very subordinate part. The characteristic 

 kind in the latter region is the Jara (Leopol- 

 dinia pulchra), a species not found on the 

 margins of the Amazons, which has a 

 scanty head of fronds, with narrow leaflets 

 of the same dark green hue as the rest of the 

 forest. The stem is smooth, and about two 

 inches in diameter ; its height is not more 

 than twelve to fifteen feet ; it does not, there- 

 fore, rise among the masses of foliage of the 

 exogenous trees, so as to form a feature in 

 the landscape, like the broad-leaved MUTU- 

 rnuru and Urucrui, the slender Assai, the 

 tall Jauari, and the fan-leaved Muriti of the 

 banks jf the Amazons. On the shores of the 

 main river the mass of the forest is composed, 

 besides palms, of Leguminosse, or trees of the 

 bean family, in endless variety as to height, 

 shape of foliage, flowers, and fruit ; of silk- 

 cottoii-tiees, colossal nut-trees (Lecythidese), 

 and Cecropiae ; the underwood and water- 

 Iront age consisting in great part of broad- 

 leaveoMVIusacese, Marantacese, and succulent 

 rasses : all of which are of light shades of 

 green. The forests of the Rio Negro are al- 

 most destitute of these large-leaved plants 

 and grasses, which give so rich an appearance 

 to the vegetation wherever they grow ; the 

 margins of the stream being clothed with 

 bushes or low trees, having the same gloomy 

 monotonous aspect as the mangroves of the 

 shores of creeks near the Atlantic. The uni- 

 formly small but elegantly-leaved exogenous 

 trees, which constitute the mass of the forest, 

 consist in great part of members of the 

 Laurel, Myrtle, Bignoniaceous, and Rubia- 

 ceous orders. The soil is generally a stiff loam 

 whose chief component part is the Tabatinga 

 clay, which also forms low cliffs on the coast 

 in eome places, where it overlies strata of 

 coarse sandstone. This kind of soil and the 

 same geological formation prevail, as we have 

 seen, in many places on the banks of the Am- 

 azons, so that the great contrast in the forest 

 clothing of the two rivers caunot arise from 

 this cause. 



The forest was very pleasant for rambling, 

 fn home directions broad pathways led down 

 gentle slopes, through what one might fancy 

 were interminable shrubberies of evergreens, 

 to moist hollows where springs of water 

 bubbled up, or shallow brooks ran over their 

 beds of clean white sand. But the most 

 beautiful road was one that ran through the 

 heart of the forest to a waterfall, which the 

 citizens of Barra consider as the chief natural 

 uuriosity of their neighborhood. The waters 

 of one of the larger rivulets which traverse 

 the gloomy wilderness here fall over a Jedge 

 of rock aorvut ten tet lii^li. It is ^~- 



cascade itself, but the noiseless solitude, an 

 the marvellous diversity and richness of trees, 

 foliage, and flowers, encircling the water ba- 

 sin, that form the attraction of the place 

 Families make picnic excursions to this spot ; 

 and the gentlemen it is said the ladies also 

 spend the sultry hours of mid- day bathing 

 in the cold and bracing waters. The place 

 is classic ground to the naturalist, from hav- 

 ing been a favorite spot with the celebrated 

 travellers Spix and Martius, during their stay 

 at Barra in 1820. Von Martius was so much 

 impressed by its magical beauty that he com- 

 memorated the visit by making a sketch of 

 the scenery serve as background in one of 

 the plates of his great work on the palms. 



Birds and insects, however, were scarce 

 amid these charming sylvan scenes. I have 

 often traversed the whole distance from 

 Barra to the waterfall, about two miles by 

 the forest road, without seeing or hearing a 

 bird, or meeting with so many as a score of 

 Lepidppterous and Coleopterous insects. In 

 the thinner woods near the borders of the 

 forest many pretty little blue and green 

 creepers of the Dacnidse group were daily 

 seen feeding on berries, and a few very hand- 

 some birds occurred in the forest. But the 

 latter were so rare that we could obtain them 

 only by employing a native hunter, who 

 used to spend a whole day and go a great 

 distance to obtain two or three specimens, 

 la this way I obtained, among others, speci- 

 mens of the Trogpn pavoninus (the Suruqui 

 graride of the natives), a most beautiful creat- 

 ure, having soft golden-green plumage, red 

 breast, and an orange-colored beak ; also the 

 Ampelis Pompadoura, a rich glossy-purple 

 chatterer with wings of a snowy-white hue. 



After we had rested some weeks in Barra, 

 we arranged our plans for further explora- 

 tions in the interior of the country. Mr. 

 Wallace chose the Rio Negro for his next 

 trip, and I agreed to take the Solimoens. My 

 colleague has already given to the world an 

 account of his journey on the Rio Negro, and 

 bis adventurous ascent of its great tributary 

 the Uapes. I left Barra for Ega, the first 

 town of any importance on the Solinioens, 

 on the 26th of March, 1850. The distance is 

 nearly 400 miles, which we accomplished in 

 a small cuberta, maimed by ten stout Cucama 

 Indians, in thirty-five days. On this occa- 

 sion I spent twelve months in the upper re- 

 gion of the Amazons ; circumstances then 

 compelled me to return to Para. I revisited 

 the same country in 1855, and devoted tluee 

 years and a half to a fuller exploration of ite 

 natural productions. The results of both 

 journeys will be given together in subse- 

 quent chapters of this work ; in the mean- 

 time I will proceed to give an account of 

 Santarem and the river Tapajos, whoso 

 neighborhoods I investigated in the years 

 1851-4. 



A few words on my visit to Para in 1851 

 may be here introduced. I descended the 

 river from Ega to the capital, a distance of 

 1400 miles, in a heavily-laden schooner be- 

 longing to a Uader of tlie former place. Tha 



