20 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



giant stork Mycteria Americana] were seen, but 

 were too wary to be shot. 



June 1 5. --The river now reminds me of the 

 Upper Rio Negro similar banks sloping steeply 

 to the water's edge, inundated in winter and clad 

 with black rootlets. In many places the perpen- 

 dicular cliffs of earth are speedily covered with 

 rudimentary mosses. The little Oxalis also re- 

 appears accompanied by patches of a grass and a 

 small Composite herb. The wind has been very 

 cool these two days, and in the morning actually 

 cold. 



June 1 6.- -This morning we passed, on the 

 north bank, a line of cliffs about a quarter of a 

 mile long, the upper 12 feet being red earth in 

 scarcely distinguishable horizontal layers, while 

 the remaining 20 feet were in distinct layers in- 

 clined about 30" to the horizon. These were also 

 of red earth, but in two places a few beds of 

 greyish sandstone occurred. A little below the 

 entrance to the pongo we came to a large clearing 

 on the north bank, partially planted with Yucas 

 and Plantains. 



June 17. Soon after starting this morning we 

 reached the pongo, where the river is much 

 narrowed and confined in one channel by steep 

 hills on each side. The margins were at first 

 rocky, with large blocks irregularly scattered, soon 

 changing to low walls of thick rock-strata. 



An hour and a half within this channel we came 

 to streams of hot water, pouring in four or five 

 slender rivulets from a black cliff perhaps 20 feet 

 high and 20 or 30 yards from the river's margin. 

 Each tiowecl in a slight hollow marked by vapour 



