THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



749 



t arched covering open at both ends. The 



jaguars nevertheless must have come very 



near during the night, for their fresh foot- 



_:marks were numerous within a score yards 



of the place where we slept. In the morning 



I bad a ramble along the borders of the jun- 



.'gle, and found the tracks very numerous and 



-close together on the sandy soil. 



We remained in this neighborhood four 

 days, and succeeded in obtaining many hun- 

 dred turtles, but we were obliged to sleep 

 two nights within the Carapanatuba chan- 

 nel. The first night passed rather pleasantly,* 

 for the weather was fine, and we encamped 

 in the forest, making large fires and slinging 

 our hammocks between the trees. The sec- 

 ond was one of the most miserable nights I 

 ever spent. The air was close, and a driz- 

 zling rain began to fall about midnight, last- 

 ing until morning. We tried at first to brave 

 it out under the trees. Several very large 

 fires were made, lighting up with ruddy 

 gleams the magnificent foliage in the black 

 shades around our encampment. The heat 

 and smoke had the desired effect of keeping 

 off pretty well the mosquitoes, but the rain 

 continued until at length everything was 

 soaked, and we had no help for it but to bun- 

 dle off to the canoes with drenched ham- 

 mocks and garments. There was not nearly 

 room enough in the flotilla to accommodate 

 so large a number of persons lying at full 

 length ; moreover the night was pitch dark, 

 and it was quite impossible in the gloom and 

 ' confusion to get at a change of clothing. 

 So there we lay, huddled together in the best 

 way we could arrange ourselves, exhausted 

 with fatigue and irritated beyond all concep- 

 tion by clouds of mosquitoes. I slept on a 

 bench with a sail over me, my wet clothes 

 clinging to my body, and to increase my dis- 

 comfort, close beside me lay an Indian girl, 

 one of Cardozo's domestics, who had a skin 

 disfigured with black disease patches, and 

 whose thick clothing, not having been 

 washed during the whole time we had been 

 -out (eighteen days), gave forth a most vile 

 effluvium. 



We spent the night of the 7th of Novem- 

 ber pleasantly on the smooth sands, where 

 the jaguars again serenaded us, and on the 

 succeeding morning we commenced our re- 

 turn voyage to Ega. We first doubled the 

 upper end of the Island of Catua, and then 

 struck off for the right bank of the Soli- 

 moens The river was here of immense 

 width, and the current was so strong in the 

 middle that it required the most strenuous 

 exertions on the part of our paddlers to pre- 

 vent us from being carried miles away down 

 the stream. At night we reached the Juteca, 

 a small river which enters the Solimoens by 

 a channel so narrow that a man might al- 

 most jump across it, but a furlong inward 

 expands into a very pretty lake several miles 

 in circumference. We slept again in the for- 

 est, and again were annoyed by rain and mos- 

 quitoes; but this time Cardozo and I preferred 

 remaining where we were to mingling with 

 .the reeking crowd in the boats. When tho 



gray dawn arose, a steady rain was still fall- 

 ing, and the whole sky had a settled leaden 

 appearance, but it was delightfully cool. 

 We took our net into the lake arid gleaned a 

 good supply of delicious fish for breakfast. 

 I saw at the upper end of this lake the native 

 rice of this country growing wild. 



The weather cleared up at 10 o'clock A.M. 

 At 3 P.M. we arrived at the mouth of the 

 Cayambe, another tributary stream much 

 larger than the Juteca. The channel of exit 

 to the Solimoens was here also very narrow, 

 but the expanded river inside is of vast 

 dimensions ; it forms a lake (I may safely 

 venture to say) several score miles in circum- 

 ference. Although prepared for these sur- 

 prises, I was quite taken aback in this case. 

 We had been paddling all day along a monot- 

 onous shore, with the dreary Solimoens be- 

 fore us, here three to four miles broad, 

 heavily rolling onward its muddy waters. 

 We come to a little gap in the earthy banks, 

 and find a dark, narrow inlet, with a wall of 

 forest overshadowing it on each side ; we 

 enter it and at a distance of two or three 

 hundred yards a glorious sheet of water 

 bursts upon the view. The scenery of Cay- 

 aiube is very picturesque. The land, on th 

 two sides visible of the lake, is high and 

 clothed with sombre woods, varied here and 

 there with a whitewashed house in the mid- 

 dle of a green patch of clearing, belonging 

 to settlers. In striking contrast to these dark 

 rolling forests is the vivid light-green and 

 cheerful foliage of the woods on the numer 

 ous islets which rest like water-gardens oi> 

 the surface of the lake. Flocks of ducks, 

 storks, and snow-white herons inhabit these 

 islets, and a noise of parrots with the tingling 

 chorus of Tamburf-paras was heard from 

 them as we passed. This had a cheering 

 effect, after the depressing stillness and ab- 

 sence of life in the woods on the margins of 

 the main river. 



Cardozo and I took a small boat and crossed 

 the lake to visit one of the settlers, and on 

 our return to our canoe, while in the middle 

 of the lake, a squall suddenly arose, in the 

 direction toward which we were going, so 

 that for a whole hour we were in great dan- 

 ger of being swamped. The wind blew 

 away the awning and mats, and lashed the 

 waters into foam, the waves rising to a great 

 height. Our boat, fortunately, was excel- 

 lently constructed, rising well toward the 

 prow, so that with good steering we managed 

 to head the billows as they arose, and escaped 

 without shipping much water. We reached 

 our igarite at sunset, and then made all speed 

 to Curubaru, fifteen miles distant, to encamp 

 for the night on the sands. We reached the 

 praia at ten o'clock. The waters were now 

 mounting fast upon the sloping beach, and 

 we found on dragging the net next morning 

 that fish were beginning to be scarce Car- 

 dozo and his friends talked quite gloomily at 

 breakfast time, over the departure of the joy- 

 ous verao, and the setting in of the dull, hun- 

 gry winter season. 

 At nine o'clock in the morning of the 10th 



