THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



To the south my rambles never extended 

 further than the banks of the Irura, a stream 

 which rises among the hills already spoken 

 of, and running through a broad valley, 

 wooded along the margins of the water- 

 courses, falls into the Tapajos at the head 

 of the bay of Mapiri. All beyond, as before 

 remarked, is terra incognita to the inhabi- 

 tants of Santarem. The Brazilian settlers 

 on the banks of the Amazons seem to have 

 no taste for explorations by land, and I could 

 find no person willing to accompany me on 

 an excursion further toward the interior. 

 Such a journey would be exceedingly diffi- 

 cult in this country, even if men could be 

 obtained willing to undertake it. Besides, 

 there were reports of a settlement of fierce 

 runaway negroes on the Serra de Mururaru, 

 and it was considered unsafe to go far in 

 that direction, except with a large armed 

 party. I visited the banks of the Irura and 

 the rich woods accompanying it, and two 

 other streams in the same neighborhood, one 

 called the Panema, and the other the Uru- 

 mari, once or twice a week during the whole 

 time of my residence in Santarem, and made 

 large collections of their natural productions. 

 These forest brooks, with their clear cold 

 Waters brawling over their sandy or pebbly 

 beds, through wild tropical glens, always 

 had a great charm for me. The beauty of 

 the moist, cool, and luxuriant glades was 

 heightened by the contrast they afforded to 

 the sterile country around them. The bare 

 or scantily wooded hills which surround the 

 valley are parched by the rays of the vertical 

 sun. One of them, the Pico do Irura, forms 

 a nearly perfect cone, rising from a small 

 grassy plain to a height of 500 or 600 feet, 

 and its ascent is excessively fatiguing after 

 the long walk from Santarem over the 

 campos. I tried it one day, but did not reach 

 the summit. A dense growth of coarse 

 grasses clothed the steep sides of the hill, 

 with here and there a stunted tree of kinds 

 found in the plain beneath. In bared places, 

 a red crumbly soil is exposed ; and in one 

 part a mass of rock, which appeared to me, 

 from its compact texture and the absence of 

 stratification, to be porphyritic ; but I am 

 not geologist sufficient to pronounce on such 

 questions. Mr. Wallace states that he found 

 fragments of scoria?, and believes the hill to 

 be a volcanic cone. To the south and east 

 of this isolated peak the elongated ridges or 

 table-topped hills attain a somewhat greater 

 elevation. 



The forest in the valley is limits to a tract 

 a few hundred j r ards in width on each side 

 of the different streams ; in places where 

 these run along the bases of the hills, the 

 hill-sides facing the water are also richly 

 wooded, although their opposite declivities 

 are bare, or nearly so. The trees are lofty 

 and of great variety ; among them are colos- 

 sal examples of the Brazil- nut- tree (Berthol- 

 letia excelsa), and the Pikia. This latter 

 bears a large eatable fruit, curious in having 

 a hollow chamber between the pulp and the 

 kernel, beset with hard spines, which oro 



duce serious wounds if they enter the skic. 

 The eatable part appeared to me not much . 

 more palatable than a raw potato ; but the 

 inhabitants of Santarem. are very fond of it , 

 and undertake the most toilsome journeys on l 

 foot to gather a basketful. The tree which 

 yields the tonka bean (Dipteryx odorata), 

 used in Europe for scenting snuff, is also of 

 frequent occurrence here. It grows to an 

 immense height, and the fruit, which, 

 although a legume, is of a rounded shape, 

 and has but one seed, can be gathered only 

 when it falls to the ground. A considerable 

 quantity (from 1000 to 3000 pounds) is ex- 

 ported annually from Santarem, the produce 

 of the whole region of the Tapajos. An 

 endless diversity of trees and shrubs, some 

 beautiful in flower and foliage, others bear- f 

 ing curious fruits, grow in this matted wil- 

 derness. It would be tedious to enumerate 

 many of them. I was much struck with the 

 variety of trees with large and diversely 

 shaped fruits growing out of the trunk and 

 branches, some within a few inches of the 

 ground, like the cacao. Most of them ate 

 called by the natives Cupu, and the trees 

 are of inconsiderable height. One of them, 

 called Cupu-aT, bears a fruit of elliptical 

 shape and of a dingy earthen color, six or 

 seven inches long, the shell of which is- 

 woody and thin, and contains a small num- 

 ber of seeds loosely enveloped in a juicy pulp - 

 of very pleasant flavor. The fruits hang, 

 like clayey ants' nests from the branches. 

 Another kind more nearly resembles the 

 cacao ; this is. shaped something like the- 

 cucumber, and has a green ribbed husk. It. 

 bears the name of Cacao de macaco, or 

 monkey's chocolate, but the seeds are smaller 

 than those of the common cacao. I tried 

 once or twice to make chocolate from them. 

 They contain plenty of oil of similar fra- 

 grance to that of the ordinary cacao- nut, and: 

 make up very well into paste ;, but the bever- 

 age has a repulsive clayey c^lor and an in- 

 ferior flavor. 



My excursions to the Iruik i*ad always a& 

 picnic character. A few rude huts are scat- 

 tered through the valley, but they are tenant- 

 ed only for a few days in the year, wheu 

 their owners come to gather and roast the 

 mandioca of their small clearings. We used 

 generally to take with us two boys one negro- 

 the other Indian to carry our provisions for 

 the day ; a few pounds of beef or fried fish 

 farinha, and bananas, with plates, and i 

 kettle for cooking. Jose carried the guns, 

 ammunition, and game-bags, and 1 the appa- 

 ratus for entomologizing the insect net, a 

 large leathern bag with compartments for 

 corked boxes, phials, glass tubes, and so* 

 forth. It was our custom to start soon after 

 sunrise, when the walk over the campos was- 

 cool and pleasant, the sky without a cloud, 

 and the grass wet with dew. The paths are 

 mere faint tracks ; in our early excursions it. 

 was difficult to avoid missing our way. We 

 were once completely lost, and wandered 

 about for several hours over the scorchin 

 Boil without recovering: the road. A 



