Chap. III. PALM-FRUITS. 1(57 



little bloodsuckers could not very easily find an un- 

 occupied place to operate upon. Poor Miguel, the 

 Portuguese, suffered horribly from these pests, his 

 ancles and wrists being so much inflamed that he was 

 confined to his hammock, slung in the hold, for weeks. 

 At every landing-place I had a ramble in the forest 

 whilst the red skins made the fire and cooked the meal. 

 The result was a large daily addition to my collection of 

 insects, reptiles, and shells. Sometimes the neighbour- 

 hood of our gipsy-like encampment was a tract of dry 

 and spacious forest pleasant to ramble in ; but more 

 frequently it was a rank wilderness, into which it was 

 impossible to penetrate many yards, on account of 

 uprooted trees, entangled webs of monstrous woody 

 climbers, thickets of spiny bamboos, swamps, or obsta- 

 cles of one kind or other. The drier lands were some- 

 times beautified to the highest degree by groves of the 

 Urucuri palm"(Attalea excelsa), which grew by thousands 

 under the crowns of the lofty, ordinary forest trees ; 

 their smooth columnar stems being all of nearly equal 

 height (forty or fifty feet), and their broad, finely- 

 pinnated leaves interlocking above to form arches and 

 woven canopies of elegant and diversified shapes. The 

 fruit of this palm ripens on the upper river in • April, 

 and during our voyage I saw immense quantities of 

 it strewn about under the trees in places where we 

 encamped. It is similar in size and shape to the date, 

 and has a pleasantly-flavoured juicy pulp. The 'Indians 

 would not eat it ; I was surprised at this, as they 

 greedily devoured many other kinds of palm fruit 

 whose sour and fibrous pulp was much less palatable. 



