CHAPTER IV. 



EXCURSIONS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. 



The river Teffe — Rambles through groves on the beach — Excursion to 

 the house of a Passe chieftain — Character and customs of the 

 Passe tribe — First excursion to the sand islands of the Solimoens 

 —Habits of great river-turtle — Second excursion — Turtle-fishing 

 in the inland pools — Third excursion — Hunting-rambles with 

 natives in the forest — Return to Ega. 



I will now proceed to give some account of the more 

 interesting of my shorter excursions in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ega, The incidents of the longer voyages, 

 which occupied each several months, will be narrated 

 in a separate chapter. 



The settlement, as before described, is built on a 

 small tract of cleared land at the lower or eastern end 

 of the lake, six or seven miles from the main Amazons, 

 with which the lake communicates by a narrow channel. 

 On the opposite shore of the broad expanse stands a 

 small village, called Nogueira, the houses of which are 

 not visible from Ega, except on very clear days ; the 

 coast on the Nogueira side is high, and stretches away 

 into the grey distance towards the south-west. The 

 upper part of the river Teffe is not visited by the Ega 

 people, on account of its extreme unhealthiness, and its 



VOL. II. Q 



