THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



737 



water. The enjoyment one feels in rambling 

 over these free, open spaces, is no doubt en- 

 Lanced by the novelty of the scene, the 

 change being very great from the monoto- 

 nous landscape of forest which everywhere 

 -else presents itself. 



On arriving at the edge of the forest I 

 mounted the sentinel's stage, just in time to 

 see the turtles retreating to the water on the 

 opposite side of the sand-bank, after having 

 laid their eggs. The sight was well worth 

 the trouble of ascending the shaky ladder. 

 They were about a mile off, but the surface 

 of the sands was blackened with the multi- 

 tudes which were waddling toward the 

 river ; the margin of the praia was rather 

 .steep, and they all seemed to tumble head 

 first down the declivity into the water. 



I spent the morning of the 27tb collecting 

 insects in the woods of Shimuni, assisting 

 my friend in the afternoon to beat a large 

 pjol for Tracajas, Cardozo wishing to obtain 

 a supply for his table at home. The pool 

 was nearly a mile long, and lay on one side 

 of the island between the forests and the 

 sand-bank. The sands are heaped up very 

 curiously around the margins of these iso- 

 lated sheets of water ; in the present case 

 they formed a steeply -inclined bank, from 

 five to eight feet in height. What may be 

 the cause of this formation I cannot imagine. 

 The pools always contain a quantity of im- 

 prisoned fish, turtles, Tracajas, and Aiyus- 

 sas. The turtles and Aiyussas crawl out 

 voluntarily in th course of a few days, and 

 escape to the main river, but the Tracajas 

 remain and become an easy prey to the na- 

 tives. The ordinary mode of obtaining them 

 is to whip the water in every part with rods 

 lor several hours during the day, this treat- 

 ment having the effect of driving the animals 

 out. They wait, however, until the night 

 following the beaiing before making their 

 exit. Our Indians were occupied for many 

 hours in this work, and when night came they 

 and the sentinels were placed at intervals 

 ylone; the edge of the water, to be ready to 

 capture the runav. T ,vs. Cardozo and I, after 

 supper, went and took our station at one end 

 of the pool. 



Wo did not succeed, after all our trouble, 

 in getting many Tracajas. This was partly 

 owing to the intense darkness of the night, 

 *od partly, doubtless, to the sentinels having 

 already nearly exhausted the pool, notwith- 

 standing their declarations to the contrary, 

 lu waiting for the animals it was necessary 

 to keep 'silence : not a pleasant way of 

 passing the night, speaking only in whis- 

 pers, and being without fire in a place 

 liable to be visited by a prowling ja- 

 guar. Cardozo and I sat on a sandy slope 

 with our loaded guns by our side, but it 

 was so dark we could scarcely see each 

 other. Toward midnight a storm began to 

 gather around us. The faint wind which 

 had breathed from over the water, since the 

 sun went down, ceased ; thick clouds piled 

 themselves up until every star was obscured, 

 and gleams of watery lightning began to play 



In the midst of the black masses. I hinted 

 to Cardozo that I thought we had now had 

 enough of watching, and suggested a ciga- 

 rette. Just then a quick pattering movement 

 was heard on the sands, and grasping our 

 guns we both started to our feet. Whatever 

 it might have been it seemed to pass by, and 

 a few moments afterward a dark body ap- 

 peared to be moving in another direction on 

 the opposite slope of the sandy ravine where 

 we lay. We prepared to fire, but luckily 

 took the precaution of first shouting " Quern 

 vai la ?' ' (Who goes there ?) It turned out to 

 be the taciturn sentinel, Daniel, who asked 

 us mildly whether we had heard a " raposa" 

 pass our way. The raposa is a kind of wild 

 dog, with very loog tapering muzzle, and 

 black and white speckled hair. Daniel could 

 distinguish all kinds of animals in the dark 

 by their footsteps. It now began to thunder, 

 and our position was getting very uncomfort- 

 able. Daniel had not seen anything of the 

 other Indians, and thought it was useless 

 waiting any longer for Tracajas ; we there- 

 fore sent him to call in the whole party, and 

 made off ourselves, as quickly as we could, 

 for the canoe. The rest of the night was 

 passed most miserably, as indeed were very 

 many of my nights on the Solimoeiis. A 

 furious squall burst upon us ; the wind blew 

 away ihe cloths and mats we had fixed up at 

 the ends of the arched awning of the canoe 

 to shelter ourselves, and the rain beat right 

 through our sleeping- place. There we lay, 

 Cardozo and I, huddled together, and wet 

 through, waiting for the morning. 



A cup of strong and hot coffee put us to 

 rights at sunrise ; but the rain was still com- 

 ing down, having changed to a steady driz- 

 zle. Our men were all returned from the 

 pool, having taken only four Tracajas. The 

 business which had brought Cardozo hither 

 being now finished, we set out to return to 

 Ega," leaving the sentinels once more to their 

 solitude on the sands. Our return route was 

 by the rarely frequented north-easterly chan- 

 nel of the Solimoens, through which flows 

 part of the waters of its great tributary 

 stream, the Jupuia. We travelled for five 

 hours along the desolate, broken, timber- 

 strewn shore of Baria. The channel is of 

 immense breadth, the opposite coast being 

 visible only as a long low line of forest. At 

 three o'clock in the afternoon we doubled 

 the upper end of the island, and then crossed 

 toward the mouth of the Teffe by a broad 

 transverse channel running between Baria 

 and another island called Quanarii. There 

 is a small suud bank at the north-westerly 

 point of Baria called Jacaie ; we stayed here 

 to dine and afterward fished with the net. 

 A fine rain was still falling, and we had 

 capital sport, in three hauls taking more fish 

 than our canoe would conveniently hold. 

 They were of two kinds only, the Surubim 

 and the Piraepietia (species of Pimelodus), 

 very handsome fishes, four feet in length, 

 with flat spoon-shaped heads, and prettily- 

 spotted and striped skins. 



On our way from Jacare to the mouth of 



