220 The Andes and the Amazon. 



species of which have similar fruit, there is a vast differ- 

 ence in the fruits of the pahii : compare the triangular 

 cocoa-nnt, the peach-like date, and grape-like assai. The 

 silk-cotton tree is the rival of the palm in dignity ; it has 

 a white bark and a lofty flat crown. Among the loveliest 

 children of Flora we must include the mimosa, with its 

 delicately pinnated foliage, so endowed with sensibility that 

 it seems to have stepped out of the bounds of vegetable 

 life. The bamboo, the king of grasses, forms a distinct- 

 ive feature in the landscape of the Napo, frequently rising 

 eighty feet in length, though not in height, for the fronds 

 curve downward. Fancy the airy grace of our meadow 

 grasses united with the lordly growth of the poplar, and 

 you have a faint idea of bamboo beauty. 



The first day of winter (how strangely that sounds under 

 a vertical sun !) was Sunday ; but it was folly to attempt to 

 rest where punkies were as thick as atoms, so we floated 

 on. It was only by keeping in mid-river and moving rap- 

 idly enough to create a breeze through our cabin, that life 

 was made tolerable. A little after noon we were again 

 obliged to tie up for a storm. Not a human being nor a 

 habitation have we seen since leaving Coca; and to-day 

 nothing is visible but the river, with its islands, and plaias, 

 and the green palisades — the edges of the boundless forest. 

 IS'ot a hill over one hundred feet high are w^e destined to 

 see till we reach Obidos, fifteen hundred miles eastward. 

 Were it not for the wealth of vegetation — all new to trans- 

 tropical eyes — and the concerts of monkeys and macaws, 

 oppressively lonely would be the sail down the Napo be- 

 tween its uninhabited shores. But we believe the day, 

 though distant, will come when its banks will be busy with 

 life. Toward evening three or four canoes pulled out from 

 the shore and came alongside. They were filled with the 

 lowest class of Indians we have seen in South America. 



