Cjiap. IV. JOURXEY TO CAMETA 147 



of dolphin inhabit exclusively the sea. In the broader 

 parts of the Amazons, from its mouth to a distance of 

 fifteen hundred miles in the interior, one or other of 

 the three kinds here mentioned are always heard 

 rolling, blowing, and snorting, especially at night, and 

 these noises contribute much to the impression of 

 sea-wide vastness and desolation which haunts the 

 traveller. Besides dolphins in the water, frigate birds 

 in the air are characteristic of this lower part of the 

 Tocantins. Flocks of them were seen the last two or 

 three days of our journey, hovering above at an im- 

 mense height. Towards night we were obliged to cast 

 anchor over a shoal in*the middle of the river to await 

 the ebb tide. The wind blew very strongly, and this, 

 together with the incoming flow, caused such a heavy 

 sea that it was impossible to sleep. The vessel rolled 

 and pitched until every bone in our bodies ached with 

 the bumps we received, and we were all more or less 

 sea-sick. On the following day we entered the Anapu, 

 and on the 30th September, after threading again the 

 labpinth of channels communicating betw^een the 

 Tocantins and the Moju, arrived at Para. 



I will now give a short account of Cameta, the 

 principal town on the banks of the Tocantins, which I 

 visited for the second time, in June, 1849 ; Mr. Wallace, 

 in the same month, departing from Para to explore the 

 rivers Guama and Capim. I embarked as passenger in 

 a Cameta trading vessel, the St. John, a small schooner 

 of thirty tons burthen. I had learnt by this time that 

 the only way to attain the objects for which I had 



