66 PARA. Chap. II. 



were of second growth, the original forest near the town 

 having been formerly cleared or thinned. They were 

 dense and impenetrable on account of the close growth 

 of the young trees and the mass of thorny shrubs and 

 creepers. These thickets swarmed with ants and ant- 

 thrushes ; they were also frequented by a species of puff- 

 throated manikin, a little bird which flies occasionally 

 across the road, emitting a strange noise, made, I 

 believe, with its wings, and resembling the clatter of a 

 small wooden rattle. 



A mile or a mile and a half further on, the character 

 of the woods began to change, and we then found our- 

 selves in the primaeval forest. The appearance was 

 greatly different from that of the swampy tract I have 

 already described. The land was rather more elevated 

 and undulating ; the many swamp plants with their 

 long and broad leaves were wanting, and there was 

 less underwood, although the trees were wider apart. 

 Through this wilderness the road continued for seven 

 or eight miles. The same unbroken forest extends all 

 the way to Maranham and in other directions, as we 

 were told, a distance of about 300 miles southward and 

 eastward of Para. In almost every hollow part the road 

 was crossed by a brook, whose cold, dark, leaf-stained 

 waters were bridged over by tree trunks. The ground 

 was carpeted, as usual, by Lycopodiums, but it was 

 also encumbered with masses of vegetable d^ris 

 and a thick coating of dead leaves. Fmits of many 

 kinds were scattered about, amongst which were many 

 sorts of beans, some of the pods a foot long, flat and 

 leathery in texture, others hard as stone. In one 



