of an Orchid Hunter. 



53 



steam-pipes, the absence of any uncomfortable motion 

 of the boat, compared with the disagreeable churning 



of a sea-voyage, and the tempering of the heat by a 

 soft breeze smelling of a thousand flowers from the 

 forest, make the first impression the traveller receives 

 of navigation on the Maofdalena anything: but dis- 

 agreeable. 



Whilst I was thus engaged in making something 

 like an inventory of the people, the situation, and the 

 surroundings, the bell sounded for dinner. Perhaps it 

 may not be out of place here, for the sake of any who 

 may care to make the same journey, to mention how 

 the inner man is cared for on these river-boats. The 

 viands, although somewhat extraordinary to the taste 

 of a European, are as good as the country affords, and 

 well suited to the situation. In the first place, to 

 prove that the soup is no spurious imitation, each plate 

 is furnished with two or more turtles' eggs, which float 

 on the top as a kind of trade mark. These, on first 

 tasting them, are scarcely as good as they look ; but 

 once the palate becomes accustomed, they prove excel- 

 lent eating. The fish is probably a small kind of 

 perch which abounds in the Magdalena, but is served 

 so mashed up that it is impossible to say whether it is 

 salmon or lobster. Flesh-meat of every kind is here 

 very inferior, as the heat renders it impossible to keep 

 it for two days without a large quantity of salt, besides 



E* 



