CifAP. VII. SAND-BANK. 303 



abode of an industrious family, but all the men were 

 absent, saltinof Pirarucii on tlie lakes. The house, like 

 its neighbours, was simply a framework of poles thatched 

 witli palm-leaves, the walls roughly latticed and plastered 

 with mud : but it was larger, and much cleaner inside 

 than the others. It was full of women and children, who 

 were busy all day with their various employments ; some 

 weaving hammocks in a large clumsy frame, which 

 held the warp whilst the shuttle was passed by the 

 hand slowly across the six feet breadth of web ; others 

 spinning cotton, and others again scraping, pressing, 

 and roasting mandioca. The family had cleared and 

 cultivated a large piece of ground ; the soil was of extra- 

 ordinar}^ richness, the perpendicular banks of the river, 

 near the house, revealing a depth of many feet of crumb- 

 ling vegetable mould. There was a large plantation of 

 tobacco, besides the usual patches of Indian-corn, sugar- 

 cane, and mandioca ; and a grove of cotton, cacao, 

 coffee and fruit-trees surrounded the house. We passed 

 two nights at anchor in shoaly water off the beach. 

 The weather was most beautiful ; scores of Dolphins 

 rolled and snorted about the canoe all nig^ht. I saw 

 here, for the first time, the flesh-coloured species (Del- 

 phinus pallidus of Gervais ?), which rolled always in 

 pairs, both individuals being of the same colour. In the 

 day-time the margin of the beach abounded with a 

 small tiger-beetle (Cicindela hebrsea of Klug), which 

 flew up like a swarm of house-flies before our steps as 

 we walked along. It is not easily detected, for its 

 colour is assimilated to that of the moist sand over 

 which it runs. I have a pleasant recollection of this 



