324 THE LOWER AMAZO^^S. Chap. YII. 



as frequently pursuing their prey on trees and herbage as 

 on the gi'ound. The tjrpical tiger-beetles, or Cicindelse, 

 inhabit only open and sunny situations, and are wholly 

 terrestrial in their habits. They are the sole forms of 

 the family which occur in the Northern and Central 

 parts of Europe and North America. In the Amazons 

 region, the shade-loving and semi-arboreal Odontocheilse 

 outnumber in species the Cicindelse as twenty-two to 

 six ; all but one of this number are exclusive^ peculiar 

 to the Amazonian forests, and this affords another proof 

 of the adaptation of the Fauna to a forest-clad country, 

 pointing to a long and uninterrupted existence of land 

 covered by forests on this part of the earth's surface. 



We left this place on the 8th of January, and on the 

 afternoon of the 9th, arrived at Matari, a miserable little 

 settlement of Miira Indians. Here we again anchored 

 and went ashore. The place consisted of about twenty 

 slightly-built mud-hovels, and had a most forlorn ap- 

 pearance, notwithstanding the luxuriant forest in its 

 rear. A horde of these Indians settled here many years 

 ago, on the site of an abandoned missionaiy station, and 

 the government had lately placed a resident director over 

 them, with the intention of bringing the hitherto intract- 

 able savages under authority. This, however, seemed 

 to promise no other result than that of driving them 

 to their old solitary haunts on the banks of the interior 

 waters, for many families had already withdrawn them- 

 selves. The absence of the usual cultivated trees and 

 plants, gave the place a naked and poverty-stricken 

 aspect. I entered one of the hovels, where several 

 women were employed cooking a meal. Portions of a 



