THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



747 



hand of man. The smallest were about two 

 feet, the largest seven or eight feet in diame- 

 ter. As we approached the most extensive of 

 the larger ones, I was startled at seeing a 

 number of large serpent-like heads bobbing 

 above the surface. They proved to be those 

 of electric eels, and it now occurred to me 

 that the round boles were made by these 

 animals working constantly round and round 

 in the moist muddy soil. Their depth (some 

 of them were at least eight feet deep) was 

 doubtless due also to the movements of the 

 eels in the soft soil, and accounted for their 

 not drying up, in the fine season, with the 

 rest of the creek. Thus, while alligators and 

 turtles in this great inundated forest region 

 4 retire to the larger pools during the dry sea- 

 son, the electric eels make for themselves lit- 

 tle ponds in which to pass the season of 

 drought. 



My companions now cut each a stout pole, 

 and proceeded to eject the eels in order to 

 get at the other fishes, with which they had 

 discovered the ponds to abound. I amused 

 them all very much by showing how the 

 electric shock from the eels could pass from 

 one person to another. We joined hands in 

 a line while I touched the biggest and fresh- 

 est of the animals on the head with the point 

 of my hunting-knife. We found that this 

 experiment did not succeed more than three 

 times with the same eel when out of the 

 water ; for the fourth time the shock was 

 Scarcely perceptible. All the fishes found in 

 !he holes (besides the eels) belonged to one 

 species, a small kind of Acari, or Loricaria, 

 a group whose members have a complete 

 bony integument. Lino and the boy strung 

 them together through the gills with slender 

 sipos, and hung them on the trees to await 

 our return later in the day. 



Leaving the bed of the creek, we marched 

 onward, always toward the centre of the 

 land, guided by the sun, which now glim- 

 mered through the thick foliage overhead. 

 About eleven o'clock we saw a break in the 

 forest before us, and presently emerged on 

 the banks of a rather large sheet of water. 

 This was one of the interior pools of which 

 there are so many in this distric t. The mar- 

 .gins were elevated some few feet, and sloped 

 down to the water, the ground being hard 

 and dry to the water's edge and covered with 

 shrubby vegetation. We passed completely 

 round this pool, finding the crowns of the 

 trees on its borders tenanted by curassow 

 birds, whose presence was bttiayed as usual 

 by the peculiar note which they emit. My 

 companions shot two of them. At the fur- 

 ther end of the lake lay a deep water-course, 

 which we traced for about half a mile, and 

 found to communicate with another and 

 smaller pool. This second one evidentty 

 swarmed with turtles, as we saw the snouts 

 of many peering above the surface of the 

 water : the same had not been seen in the 

 larger lake, probably because we had made 

 too much noise in hailing our discovery, on 

 approaching its banks. My friends made au 

 on the spot for returning 



pool, after the termination of the egg harvest 

 on Catua. 



In recrossing the space between the two 

 pools we heard the crash of monkeys in the 

 crowns of trees overhead. The chase of 

 these occupied us a considerable time. Jose 

 fired at length at one of the laggards of the 

 troop, and wounded him. He climbed 

 pretty nimbly toward a denser part of the 

 tree, and a second and a third discharge 

 failed to bring him down. The poor maimed 

 creature then trailed his limbs to one of the 

 topmost branches, where we descried him 

 soon after, seated and picking the entrails 

 from a wound in his abdomen a most heart- 

 rending sight. The height from the ground 

 to the bough on which he was perched could 

 not have been less than 150 feet, and we 

 could get a glimpse of him only by standing 

 directly underneath, and straining our eyes 

 upward. We killed him at last 'by loading 

 pur best gun with a careful charge, and rest- 

 ing the barrel against the tree trunk to steady 

 the aim. A few shots entered his chin, and 

 he then fell heels over head screaming to the 

 ground. Although it was I who gave the 

 final shot, this animal did not fall to my lot 

 in dividing the spoils at the end of the day. 

 I regret now not having preserved the skin, 

 as it belonged to a very large species of 

 Cebus, and one which I never met with after- 

 ward. 



It was about one o'clock in the afternoon 

 when we again reached the spot where we 

 had first struck the banks of the larger pool. 

 We had hitherto had ,but poor spoit, so after 

 dining on the remains of our fried fish and 

 farinha, and smoking pur cigarettes, the ap 

 paratus for making which, including bamboo 

 tinder-box and steel and flint for striking a 

 light, being carried by every one always on 

 these expeditions, we made off in another 

 (westerly) direction through the forest to 

 try to find better hunting ground. We 

 quenched our thirst with water from the 

 pool, which I was rather surprised to find 

 quite pure. These pools are, of course, 

 sometimes fouled for a time by the move- 

 ments of alligators and other tenants in the 

 fine mud which settles at the bottom, but I 

 never observed a scum of confervse or traces 

 of oil revealing animal decomposition on the 

 surface of these waters, nor was there ever 

 any foul smell perceptible. The whole of 

 this level land, instead of being covered with 

 unwholesome swamps emitting malaria, 

 forms in the dry season (and in the wet also) 

 a most healthy country. How elaborate 

 must be the natural processes of self-purifi- 

 cation in these teeming waters ! 



On our fresh route we were obliged to cut 

 our way through a long belt of bamboo un- 

 derwood, and not being so caieful of my 

 steps as my companions, I trod repeatedly on 

 the flinty thorns which had fallen from the 

 bushes, finishing by becoming completely 

 lame, one thorn having entered deeply the 

 sole of my foot. I was obliged to be left be- 

 hind, Lino, the Indian, remaining with me. 

 T** Careful fellow cleaned my wounds with 



