NO. 6 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I92O 



59 



COLLECTIONS OF LIVING ANIMALS FOR THE NATIONAL 

 ZOOLOGICAL PARK 



As in former years, friends of the Smithsonian Institution, while 

 on expeditions abroad, collected and sent to Washington interesting 

 living animals for the National Zoological Park. 



Mr. W. J. La Varre, who has before made collections of this kind, 

 visited South America and explored the upper waters of the Amazon. 



Fig. ^2. — Animals for the National Zoological Park awaiting shipment at 

 Manaos, Brazil. Photograph by La Varre. 



He left the United States in June, 1919, and traveled directly to 

 Manaos, Brazil, the jungle metropolis about 1,000 miles up the 

 Amazon at the mouth of the Rio Negro. From Manaos he ascended 

 the Rio Negro, by small steamer and launch, into Venezuela. He 

 found much of interest, but no trace of the so-called " cannibals " of 

 the region, or of anything savage, either beast or man. The natives, 

 poor, half-breed rubber gatherers — Spanish, Portuguese. Negro, and 

 Indian mixtures — treated him cordially and most hospitably, sharing 

 their rude homes of thatch with him and giving him as much of their 

 food as they could possibly spare. Six months were spent with these 



