Chap. IY. JUQUEEAPUA. 139 



I was sorry to be obliged to leave this beautiful, though 

 almost uninhabited, country so soon, our journey 

 through it having been a mere tourist's gallop. Its 

 vegetable and animal productions, of which we had 

 obtained merely a glimpse, so to speak, were evidently 

 different from those of the alluvial plains of the 

 Amazons. The time we had spent, however, was too 

 short for making a sufficient collection of specimens and 

 facts to illustrate the amount and nature of the differ- 

 ence between the two faunas : a subject of no small 

 importance as being calculated to throw light on the 

 migrations of species across the equator in South 

 America. In the rocky pools near Juquerapua we 

 found many species of fresh-water shells, and each of us, 

 Mr. Leavens included, made a large collection of them. 

 One was a turret-shaped univalve, a species of Melania, 

 every specimen of which was worn at the apex ; we 

 tried in vain to get a perfect specimen. In the crystal 

 waters the fishes could be seen as plainly as in an 

 aquarium. One kind especially attracted our attention, 

 a species of Diodon, which was not more than three inches 

 long and of a pretty green colour banded with black ; 

 the natives call it Mamayacu. It is easily caught, and 

 when in the hand distends itself, becoming as round as a 

 ball. This fish amuses the people very much ; when 

 a person gets corpulent, they tell him he is as fat as a 

 Mamayacu. 



At night I slept ashore as a change from the con- 

 finement of the canoe, having obtained permission 

 from Senhor Joaquim to sling my hammock under 

 his roof. The house, like all others in these out-of- 



