288 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



matted, and ribboned with climbing plants, woody and 

 succulent, in endless variety. The most prevalent palm 

 was the tall Astryocaryum Jauari, whose fallen spines 

 made it necessary to pick our way carefully over the 

 ground, as we were all barefoot. There was not much 

 green underwood, except in places where Bamboos grew ; 

 these formed impenetrable thickets of plumy foliage 

 and thorny, jointed stems, which always compelled us 

 to make a circuit to avoid them. The earth elsewhere 

 was encumbered with rotting fruits, gigantic bean-pods, 

 leaves, limbs, and trunks of trees, fixing the impression 

 of its being the cemetery as well as the birthplace of 

 the great world of vegetation overhead. Some of the 

 trees were of prodigious height. We passed many speci- 

 mens of the Moratinga, whose cylindrical trunks, I dare 

 not say how many feet in circumference, towered up 

 and were lost amidst the crowns of the lower trees, 

 their lower branches, in some cases, being hidden from 

 our view. Another very large and remarkable tree was 

 the Assacu (Sapium aucuparium). A traveller on the 

 Amazons, mingling with the people, is sure to hear 

 much of the poisonous qualities of the juices of this 

 tree. Its bark exudes, when hacked with a knife, a 

 milky sap, which is not only a fatal poison when taken 

 internally, but is said to cause incurable sores if simply 

 sprinkled on the skin. My companions always gave the 

 Assacu a wide berth when we passed one. The tree 

 looks ugly enough to merit a bad name, for the bark is 

 of a dingy olive colour, and is studded with short and 

 sharp, venomous-looking spines. 



After walking about half a mile we came upon a dry 





