Chap. I. REST IN THE FOREST. 51 



Descending into the valley, a small brook has to be 

 crossed, and then half a mile of sandy plain, whose 

 vegetation wears a peculiar aspect, owing to the pre- 

 dominance of a stemless palm, the Curua (Attalea 

 spectabilis), whose large, beautifully pinnated, rigid 

 leaves rise directly from the soil. The fruit of this 

 species is similar to the coco-nut, containing milk in 

 the interior of the kernel, but it is much inferior to it 

 in size. Here, and indeed all along the road, we saw, on 

 most days in the wet season, tracks of the Jaguar. 

 We never, however, met with the animal, although we 

 sometimes heard his loud " hough " in the night whilst 

 lying in our hammocks at home, in Santarem, and knew 

 he must be lurking somewhere near us. 



My best hunting ground was a part of the valley 

 sheltered on one side by a steep hill whose declivity, 

 like the swampy valley beneath, was clothed with 

 magnificent forest. We used to make our halt in a 

 small cleared place, tolerably free from ants and close 

 to the water. Here we assembled after our toilsome 

 morning's hunt in different directions through the 

 woods, took our well-earned meal on the ground — two 

 broad leaves of the wild banana serving us for a table- 

 cloth — and rested for a couple of hours during the great 

 heat of the afternoon. The diversity of animal pro- 

 ductions was as wonderful as that of the vegetable 

 forms in this rich locality. I find by my register that 

 it was not unusual to meet with thirty or forty new 

 species of conspicuous insects during a day's search, 

 even after I had made a great number of trips to the 

 same spot. It was pleasant to lie down during the 



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