100 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



brown colour, and of a peaty nature. The higher 

 grassy undulating parts of the campo had a lighter and 

 more sandy soil. Leaving our friends, I and Jose took 

 our guns and dived into the woods in search of the 

 monkeys. As we walked rapidly along I was very 

 near treading on a rattlesnake which lay stretched out 

 nearly in a straight line on the bare sandy pathway. 

 It made no movement to get out of the way, and I 

 escaped the danger by a timely and sudden leap, being- 

 unable to check my steps in the hurried walk. We 

 tried to excite the sluggish reptile by throwing hands- 

 full of sand and sticks at it, but the only notice it took 

 was to raise its ugly horny tail and shake its rattle. 

 At length it began to move rather nimbly, when we 

 despatched it by a blow on the head with a pole, not 

 wishing to fire on account of alarming our game. 



We saw nothing of the white Caiarara ; we met, 

 however, with a flock of the common light-brown allied 

 species (Cebus albifrons ?), and killed one as a speci- 

 men. A resident on this side of the river told us that 

 the white kind was found further to the south, beyond 

 Santa Cruz. The light-brown Caiarara is pretty gene- 

 rally distributed over the forests of the level country. 

 I saw it very frequently on the banks of the Upper 

 Amazons, where it was always a treat to watch a flock 

 leaping amongst the trees, for it is the most wonderful 

 performer in this line of the whole tribe. The troops 

 consist of thirty or more individuals which travel in 

 single file. When the foremost of the flock reaches 

 the outermost branch of an unusually lofty tree, he 

 springs forth into the air without a moment's hesitation 



