io NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



April 25. Stopped to cook our breakfast this 

 morning on a bit of dry land (inundated only in 

 the highest floods) where the forest was lofty and 

 not much obstructed by twiners. One very fine 

 Pao Mulatto, perhaps not less than 100 feet high, 

 had a mass of broad strips of shed bark at the base. 

 I picked up a piece of this, and while examining 

 it heard a rattling in the place whence I had taken 

 it. Stooping down, I saw that I had uncovered 

 a large rattlesnake, who was raising himself up and 

 poising his head for a spring at my leg, which was 

 not more than two feet off. I retreated with all 

 speed and fetched my gun from the canoe, but on 

 returning the snake had disappeared. 



On the 26th we reached Urarinas, a small pueblo 

 about the size of San Regis, and already referred to 

 as having a common origin. 



April 28. About noon to-day we spied a band 

 of peccaries crossing the river towards our side, and 

 already beyond the middle. With considerable 

 difficulty we secured nine of them by the use of 

 our guns and cutlasses. One of the largest boars, 

 when wounded, was very fierce and tried to climb 

 into the canoe, and had he not been speedily 

 killed might have wounded some of the men seri- 

 ously with his -large keen tusks, of which, as is 

 well known, even the jaguar is afraid. As we did 

 not reach a place where we could prepare and cook 

 them till early the following afternoon, the meat 

 had already become too tainted for salting, but we 

 had a meal of it, and the remainder was all cooked 

 and eaten during the succeeding night by my 

 Indians and the villagers. 



We had entered the Huallaga river during the 



