370 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



table was very well served, professed cooks being em- 

 ployed in these Amazonian steamers, and fresh meat 

 insured by keeping on deck a supply of live bullocks 

 and fowls, which are purchased whenever there is an 

 opportunity on the road. The river scenery was similar 

 to that already described as presented between the 

 Rio Negro and Ega : long reaches of similar aspect, with 

 two long, low lines of forest, varied sometimes with cliffs 

 of red clay, appearing one after the other ; an horizon of 

 water and sky on some days limiting the view both up 

 stream and down. We travelled, however, always near 

 the bank, and, for my part, I was never weary of admiring 

 the picturesque grouping and variety of trees, and the 

 varied mantles of creeping plants which clothed the 

 green wall of forest every step of the way. With the 

 exception of a small village called Fonte Boa, retired 

 from the main river, where we stopped to take in fire- 

 wood, and which I shall have to speak of presently, we 

 saw no human habitation the whole of the distance. 

 The mornings were delightfully cool ; coffee was served 

 at sunrise, and a bountiful breakfast at ten o'clock ; 

 after that hour the heat rapidly increased until it became 

 almost unbearable ; how the engine-drivers and firemen 

 stood it without exhaustion I cannot tell ; it diminished 

 after four o'clock in the afternoon, about which time din- 

 ner-bell rung, and the evenings were always pleasant. 



A few miles below Tunantins, and to the west of the 

 most westerly mouth of the Japura, on the same side 

 of the Solimoens, I saw, to my surprise, a bed of stra- 

 tified rock, apparently a fine-grained sandstone, exposed 

 on the banks of the river. It was elevated not more 



