THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



691 



There is here no fear of alligators. When 

 the east wind blows, a long swell rolls in on 

 the clean sandy beach, and the bath is most 

 exhilarating. 



The country around Santarem is not 

 clothed with dense and lofty forest, like the 

 rest of the great humid river plain of the 

 Amazons. It is a campo region ; a slightly 

 elevated and undulating tract of land, wooded 

 only in patches, or with single scattered 

 trees. A good deal of the country on the 

 borders of the Tapajos, which flows from 

 the great campo area of Interior Brazil, is of 

 this description. It is on this account that I 

 consider the eastern side of the river, toward 

 its mouth, to be a northern prolongation of 

 the continental land, and not a portion of the 

 alluvial flats of the Amazons. The soil is a 

 coarse gritty sand ; the substratum, which is 

 visible in some places, consisting of sandstone 

 conglomerate probably of the same formation 

 as that which underlies the Tabatinga clay in 

 other parts of the river valley. The surface 

 is carpeted with slender hairy grasses, unfit 

 for pasture, growing to a uniform height of 

 about a foot. The patches of wood look like 

 copses in the middle of green meadows ; they 

 are called by the natives " ilhas de mato, " or 

 islands of jungle ; the name being, no doubt, 

 suggested by their compactness of outline, 

 neatly demarcated in insular form from the 

 smooth carpet of grass around them. They 

 are composed of a great variety of trees, 

 loaded with succulent parasites, and lashed 

 together by woody climbers like the forest in 

 other parts. A narrow belt of dense wood, 

 similar in character to these ilhas, and like 

 them sharply limited along its borders, runs 

 everywhere parallel and close to the river. 

 In crossing the campo, the path from the 

 town ascends a little for a mile or two, pass- 

 ing through this marginal strip of wood ; 

 the grassy land then slopes gradually to a 

 broad valley, watered by rivulets, whose 

 banks are clothed with lofty and luxuriant 

 forest. Beyond this, a range of hills extends 



; as far as the eye can reach toward the yet 

 untrodden interior. Some of these hills are 

 long ridges, wooded or bare ; others are iso- 

 lated conical peaks, rising abruptly from 

 the valley. The highest are probably not 

 more than a thousand feet above the level of 

 the river. One remarkable hill, the Serra de 

 Muruaru, about fifteen miles from Saiitarem, 

 which terminates the prospect to the south, 

 is of the same truncated pyramidal form as 

 the range of hPls near Almeyrim. Complete 

 solitude reigns over the whole of this stretch 

 of beautiful country. The inhabitants of 

 Santarem- know nothing of the interior, and 

 seem to feel little curiosity concerning it. A 

 few tracks from the town across the campo 

 lead to some small clearings four or five 

 miles off, belonging to the poorer inhabitants 

 of the place ; but, excepting these, there are 

 no roads, or signs of the proximity of a civil- 

 ized settlement. 



The appearance of the campus changes 

 yery much according to the season. There 



-is not that grand uniformity of aspect 



throughout the year which is observed in the 

 virgin forest, and which makes a deeper 

 impression on the naturalist the longer he re. 

 mains in this country. The seasons in this 

 part of the Amazons region are sharply con- 

 trasted, but the difference is not so great as 

 in some tropical countries, where, during 

 the dry monsoon, insects and reptiles go into 

 a summer sleep, and the trees simultaneously 

 shed their leaves. As the dry season aa- 

 vances (August, September), the grass on the 

 campos withers, and the shrubby vegetation 

 near the town becomes a mass of parched 

 yellow stubble. The period, however, is not 

 one of general orpidity or repose for animal 

 or vegetable life. Birds certainly are not so 

 numerous as in the wet season, but some 

 kinds remain and lay their eggs at this time 

 for instance, the ground doves (Chamaspe- 

 lia). The trees retain their verdure through- 

 out, and many of them flower in the dry 

 months. Lizards do not become torpid, and 

 insects are seen both in the larva and the per- 

 feet states, showing that the aridity of the 

 climate has not a general influence on the de- 

 velopment of the species. Some kinds of but- 

 terflies, especially the little hair-streaks 

 (Theclse), whose caterpillars feed on the trees, 

 make their appearance only when the dry 

 season is at its height. The land molluscs 

 of the district are the only animals which 

 sestivate ; they are found in clusters, Bulimi 

 and Helices, concealed in hollow trees, the 

 moutha of their shells closed by a film of 

 mucus. The fine weather breaks up often 

 with great suddenness about the beginning 

 of February. Violent squalls from the west, 

 or the opposite direction to the trade-wind, 

 then occur. They give very little warning, 

 ana the first generally catches the people un- 

 prepared. They fall in the night, and blow- 

 ing directly into the harbor, with the first 

 gust sweep all vessels from their anchorage ; 

 in a few minutes a mass of canoes, large and 

 small, including schooners of fifty tons 

 burden, are clashing together, pell-mell, on 

 the beach. I have reason to remember these 

 storms, for I was once caught in one myself, 

 while crossing the river in an undecked boat, 

 about a day's journey from Santarem. They 

 are accompanied with terrific electric explo- 

 sions, the sharp claps of thunder falling al- 

 most simultaneously with the blinding flashes 

 of lightning. Torrents ol rain follow the first 

 outbreak ; the wind then gradually abates, 

 and the rain subsides into a steady drizzle, 

 which continues often for the greater part of 

 the succeeding day. After a week or two of 

 showery weather the aspect of the country is 

 completely changed. The parched ground 

 in the neighborhood of Santarem breads out, 

 so to speak, in a rash of greenery : the dusty, 

 languishing trees gain, without having shed 

 their old leaves, a new clothing of tender 

 green foliage ; a wonderful variety of quick 

 growing leguminous plants spring up, and 

 leafy creepers overrun the ground, thebushef, 

 and the trunks of trees. One is reminded of 

 the sudden advent of spring after a few 

 showers in northern climates ; I was 



