THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



70S 



Slesh he secured himself with his laws, by our host going over in a large boat, I 



doubled in his tail, and stung with all his crossed to go in search of it. We were about 



might. When we were seated on chairs in twenty persons in all, and the boat was an 



the evenings in front of the house to enjoy a old rickety affair, with the gaping seams 



chat with our neighbors, we had stools to rudely stuffed with tow and pitch. In addi- 



support our feet, the legs of which, as well lion to the human freight we took three sheep 



as those of the chairs, were well anointed with us, whie 1 ! Captain Antonio had just re- 

 with the balsam. The cords of hammocks 



are obliged to be smeared in the same way to 

 prevent the ants from paying sleepers a visit. 

 The inhabitants declare that the fire-ant 

 was unknown on the Tapajos before the dis- 

 orders of 1835-6, and believe that the hosts 

 sprang up from the blood of the slaughtered 

 Cabanas or rebels. They have, doubtless, 

 increased since that time, but the cause lies 

 in the depopulation of the villages nnd the 

 rank growth of weeds in the previously 



ceived from Santarem, and was going to add 

 to his new cattle farm on the other side. Ten 

 Indian paddlers carried us quickly across. 

 The breadth of the river could not be less 

 than thiee miles, and the current was scarce- 

 ly perceptible. When a boat has to cross 

 the main Amazons it is obliged to ascend 

 along the banks for half a mile or more to al- 

 low for drifting by the current ; in this lower 

 part of the Tapajos this is not necessary. 

 When about half way, the sheep, in moving' 

 I have already about, kicked a hole in the bottom of the 

 boat. The passengers took the matter very 



cleared, well-kept spaces. 



described the line of sediment formed, on the _ ^ <_, 



sandy shores lower down the river, by the coolly, although the water spouted up Miami- 

 dead bodies of the winged individuals of this ingly, and I thought we should inevitably be 

 species. The exodus from their nests of the swamped. Captain Antonio took off his 

 males and females takes place at the end of socks to stop the leak, inviting me and the 



the rainy season (June), when the swarms 

 are blown into the river by squalls of wind, 

 and subsequently cast ashore by the waves. 



same compact heap of dead bodies, which I 

 saw only in part, extends along the banks of 

 the river for twelve or fifteen miles. 



The forest behind Aveyros yielded me little banks, hidden among the dense woods, were 



except insects, but in tnese it was very rich. 

 It is not too dense, and broad sunny paths, 

 skirted by luxuriant beds of Lycopodiums, 

 which form attractive sporting places for in 



the houses of a few Indian and mameluco 

 settlers. The path to the cattle farm led first 

 through a tract of swampy forest ; it then 

 ascended a slope and emerged on a fine sweep 



must have descended to the ground from the 

 neighboring forest, and walked some dis- 

 tance to get at it. The species is sometimes 



kept in a lame state by the natives : it does mon light-brown allied species (Cebus albi- 



not make a very amusing pet, and survives 

 captivity only a short time. 



I heard that the white Cebus, the Caiarara 

 hranca, a kind of monkey I had not yet seen, 

 and wished very much to obtain, inhabited 

 the forests on the opposite side of the river ; 



fions?), and killed one as a specimen. A. 

 resident on this side of the river told us that 

 the white kind was found farther to thr 

 south, beyond Santa Cruz. The light-browi. 

 Caiarara is pretty generally distributed ovei 

 the forests of the level country. I saw it very 



Juiz de Paz, who was one of 'he party, to do 

 the same, while two Indians baled out the 

 water with large cuyas. We thus managed 



I was told-that this wholesale destruction of to keep afloat until we reached our destina- 

 ant-life takes place annually, and that the tion, when the men patched up the leak for 



our return journey. 



The landing-place lay a short * distance 

 within the mouth of a shady inlet, on whose 



sects, extend from the village to a swampy of prairie, varied with patches of timber, 



hollow or ygapo, which lies about a mile in- The wooded portion occupied the hollows 



land. Of butterflies alone I enumerated where the soil was of a rich chocolate-brow r 



fully 300 species, captured or seen in the color, and of a peaty nature. The higher 



course of forty days, within a half-hour's grassy, undulating parts of the campohada 



walk of the village. This is a greater num- lighter and more sandy soil. Leaving oui 



ber than is found in the whole of Europe, friends, 1 and Jose took our guns and dived 



The only monkey I observed was the Calli- into the woods in search of the monkeys. As 



thiix moloch, one of the kinds called by the we walked rapidly along I was very near '> 



Indians Whaiapu-sai. It is a moderate-sized treading on a rattlesnake, which lay stretched 



species, clothed with long brown hair, and out nearly in a straight line on the bare sandy 



having hands of a whitish hue. Although pathway. It made no movement to get out 



nearly nllierl to the Cebi, it has none of their of the way, and I escaped the danger by a 



res: less vivacity, but is a dull, listless animal, timely and sudden leap, being unable \A : 



It goes in small flocks of five or six individ- check my steps in the hurried walk. Wfe ', 



iwls, running along the main boughs of the tried to excite the sluggish reptile by throw- , 



I rees. One of the specimens which I ob- ing handfuls of sand and sticks at it, but the 



tained here w is caught on a low fruit-tree at only notice it took was to raise its ugly horny 



(lie back of our house at sunrise one morn- tail and shake its rattle. At length it began 



i:ig. This was the only infttance of a nvm- to move rather nimbly, when we dispatched 



k?y being captured in such a position that I it by a blow on the head with a pole, not 



beard of. As the tree was isolated, it wishing to fire on account of alarming our 



game. 



We saw nothing of the white Caiar&ra ; 



we met, however, with a flock of the com- 



*o one d;.y, on an opportunity being aff ord$ds*feequently on the banks of the \Toper Amu- 



