90 A YEAR IN BRAZIL. 



Indian name) ; they fill up the entrance to their nest 

 with resin (which is very pure, arid is used for violins) at 

 the beginning of the winter, when they shut themselves up 

 and eat the honey. The resin is to prevent woodpeckers 

 and other birds getting into the nest. 



I am now cutting my way through mata virgem, or 

 virgin forest, a mere trifle compared with those on the 

 coast and nearer the equator, but still beautiful. Our chief, 

 however, is never tired of speaking of the really grand and 

 immense forests of Spanish Honduras, which, he says, is 

 the most splendid place in the world. But I will briefly 

 describe my woods. Last night (September 26) we arrived 

 at the banks of the Rio Camapuao, and we shall go along 

 this valley until we nearly reach Brumado. The stream 

 which we have been following from the divide, during its 

 passage through an increasingly narrowing gorge with 

 steep forest-covered sides, at length reaches a fine cascade, 

 the water falling some sixty feet over the bare rocks into 

 a clear, deep pool at their base. The stream then enters 

 the valley of the Camapuao, and shortly empties itself into 

 that river ; the valley at that part is broad, flat, and marshy, 

 with a few scattered patches of capoeira and shrubs. 

 I crossed the Camapuao at a point where its broad valley 

 narrows into a gorge. The river there is some fifty feet 

 wide, and shallow, with an even and gentle fall. On one 

 side is a steep bank some thirty feet high, covered with 

 forest, beyond which is campo, or grass down ; and on the 

 other side, a broad belt of bamboo jungle, covered with water 

 in the flood season. Beyond this jungle rises a hill some 

 five or six hundred feet high, hidden in virgin forest, from 

 which are heard the distant chatter of monkeys, the melan- 

 choly caw-caw of toucans, and the singing of a thousand 

 birds. The river-bank is fringed with trees, some of which 



