THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



763 



Panama hats to exchange for European 

 wares. These hats were made t f the young 

 leaflets of a palm tree, by the Indians an/1 

 half-caste people who inhabit the eastern 

 parts of Pei u. They form almost the only 

 article of export from Peru by way of the 

 Amazons, but the money value is very great 

 compared with the bulk of the goods, as the 

 hats are generally of very fine quality, and 

 cost from twelve shillings to six pounds ster- 

 ling eacli ; some tradeis biing down two or 

 three thousand pounds' worth, folded into 

 small compuss in their trunks. The return 

 cargoes consist of hardware, crockery, glass, 

 and other bulky or heavy gsods, but not of 

 cloth, which, being of light weight, can be 

 carried across the Andes from the ports on 

 the Pacific to the eastern parts of Peru. AU 

 kinds of European cloth can be obtained at a 

 much cheaper rate by this route than by the 

 more direct way of the Amazons, the import 

 duties of Peru being, as I was told, lower 

 than those of Brazil, and the difference not 

 being counterbalanced by increased expense 

 of transit, ou account of weight, over the 

 passes of the Andes. 



There was a great lack of amusement on 

 board. ' The table was very well served, pro- 

 fessed cooks being employed in these Ama- 

 zonian steamers, and fresh meat insured by 

 keeping on deck a supply of live bullocks 

 and fowls, which are purchased whenever 

 there is an opportunity on the road. The 

 river scenery was similar to that already de- 

 scribed as presented between the Rio Negro 

 and Ega ; long reaches of similar aspect, 

 with two long, low lines of forest, varied 

 sometimes with cliffs of red clay, appearing 

 one after the other, a horizon of water and 

 sky on some days limiting the view both up 

 stream and down. We traveled, however, 

 always near the bank, and, for my pait, I 

 was never weary of admiring the picturesque 

 grouping and variety of trees, and the varied 

 mantles of creeping plants which clothed the 

 green wall of forest every step of the way. 

 With the exception of a small village called 

 Fonte Boa, retired from the iuain river, 

 where we stopped to take in firewood, and 

 of which I shall have to speak presently, we 

 saw no human habitation the whole of the 

 distance. The mornings were delightfully 

 cool ; coffee was served at sunrise, and a 

 bountiful breakfast at ten o'clock ; after that 

 hour the heat rapidly increased until it be- 

 came almost unbearable : how the engine- 

 drivers and firemen stood it without exhaus- 

 tion 1 cannot tell ; it diminished after four 

 o'clock in the afternoon, about which, time 

 dinner-bell rang, and the evenings were 

 always pleasant. 



November llth to 30*7*. The Tunautins is 

 a sluggish black-water stream, about sixty 

 miles in length, and toward its mouth from 

 100 to 200 yards in breadth. The vegetation 

 on its banks has a similar aspect to that of 

 the Rio Negro, the trees having small foliage 

 of a sombre hue, and the dark piles of 

 greenery resting on the surface of the inky 

 water. The village is situated on the left 



bank, about a mile from the mouth of the 

 river, and contains twenty habitations, nearly 

 all of which are merely hovels, built of lath- 

 work and mud. The bhort streets, after rain, 

 are aim >st impassable, on account of the 

 many puddles, and are choked up with, 

 weeds, leguminous shrubs, and scarlet- flow- 

 ered asclepias. The atmosphere in such a 

 place, hedged in as it is by the lofty forest,, 

 and surrounded by swamps, is always close* 

 warm, and reeking ; and the hum and chirp. 

 of insects and bfrds cause a continual din. 

 The small patch of weedy ground around the. 

 village swarms with plovers, sandpipers,, 

 striped herons, and scissor-lailed fly-catch- 

 ers ; and alligators are always seen floating; 

 lazily on the surface of the river in front of 

 the houses. 



On landing, I presented myself to Senhor 

 Paulo Bitancourt, a good-natured half-caste, 

 director of Indians of the neighboring river 

 Issa, who quickly ordered a small house to 

 be cleared for me. This exhilarating abode 

 contained only one room, the walls of which 

 were disfigured by large and ugly patches of 

 mud, the work of white ants. The floor 

 was the bare earth, dirty and damp ; the 

 wretched chamber was darkened by a sheet 

 of calico being stretched over the windows, 

 a plan adopted here to keep out the Pium- 

 flies, which float about in all shady places 

 like thin clouds of smoke, rendering all re- 

 pose impjssible in the daytime whenever 

 they cai. effect an entrance. My baggage 

 was soon landed, and before the steamer de- 

 parted I had taken gun, insect-net, and game 

 bag, to make a preliminary exploration of 

 my new locality, 



I remained here nineteen days, and, con- 

 sidering the shortness of the time, made a 

 very good collection of monkeys, birds, and 

 insects. A considerable number of the spe- 

 cies (especially of insects) were different from 

 those of the four other stations, which I ex- 

 amined on the south side of the Solimoens 

 and as many of these were " representative 

 forms"* of others found on the opposite 

 banks of the broad river, I concluded that 

 there could have been no connection between 

 the two shores during, at least, the recent 

 geological period. This conclusion is con- 

 firmed by the case of the Uakari monkeys, 

 described in the last chapter. All these 

 strongly modified local races of insects con- 

 fined to one side of the Solimoens (like the 

 Uakaris), are such as have not been able to 

 cross a wide treeless space such as a river. 

 The acquisition which pleased me most, iti 

 this place, was a new species of butterfly (a 

 Catagramma), which has since been named 

 C. excelsior, owing to its surpassing in size 

 and beauty all the previously-known species 

 of its singularly beautiful genus. The upper 

 surface of the wings is of the richest blue, 

 varying in shade with the play of light, and 

 on each side is a broad curved stripe of an 

 orange color. It is a bold flier, and is not 



* Species or races which take the place of other 

 ajjjed upecicB or races. 



