142 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chai\ II. 



in search of, began then to pass over ; the different 

 styles of cawing and screaming of the various species 

 making a terrible discord. Added to these noises 

 were the songs of strange Cicadas, one large kind 

 perched high on the trees around our little haven 

 setting up a most piercing chirp : it began with the 

 usual harsh jarring tone of its tribe, but this gradually 

 and rapidly became shriller, until it ended in a long 

 and loud note resembling the steam-whistle of a loco- 

 motive engine. Half-a-dozen of these wonderful per- 

 formers made a considerable item in the evening 

 concert. I had heard the same species before at Para, 

 but it was there very uncommon : we obtained here 

 one of them for my collection by a lucky blow with a 

 stone. The uproar of beasts, birds, and insects lasted 

 but a short time : the sky quickly lost its intense hue, 

 and the night set in. Then began the tree-frogs — 

 quack-quack, drum-drum, hoo-hoo ; these, accompanied 

 by a melancholy night-jar, kept up their monotonous 

 cries until very late. 



My men encountered on the banks of the stream a 

 Jaguar and a black Tiger, and were very much afraid 

 of falling in with the Pararauates, so that I could not 

 after their return on the fourth day, induce them to 

 undertake another journey. We began our descent of 

 the river in the evening of the 26th of August. At 

 night forest and river were again enveloped in mist, 

 and the air before sunrise was quite cold. There is a 

 considerable current from the falls to the house of Joao 

 Aracu, and we accomplished the distance, with its aid 

 and by rowing, in seventeen hours. 



