1896.] PXPHDITION ON THE LOWER AMAZON. 769 
kindness of Sir Wm. Flower I was selected to represent the 
Museum, the Trustees granting me the necessary leave of absence. 
Subsequently, in order that the Museum might benefit to the fullest 
possible extent, Mr. Siemens consented to take a second naturalist 
in the person of Mr. F. O. Pickard Cambridge, who, by the bound- 
less enthusiasm and untiring energy with which he threw himself 
into the labour of collecting, more than justified the selection. 
The ‘ Faraday,’ a vessel of 5000 tons, sailed from Gravesend on 
Dec. 13, 1895, and reached Para on Jan. 4, 1896, after calling on 
the way at St. Vincent, in the Cape Verde Is., where we had a 
most enjoyable day’s collecting on Dec. 26. 
Before proceeding to offer a few remarks on some of the more 
interesting species encountered on the Amazon, the Society will 
perhaps allow me to give a brief outline of the course of the ex- 
pedition, in order to explain the localities at which our collections 
were made and the conditions under which the work was carried 
out. The ‘Faraday’ remained at anchor in the Para River, about 
two miles below the city, from Jan. 4th until the 1Uth. We were 
thus enabled to collect for several days in a clearing in the forest 
about three-quarters of a mile from our anchorage, besides paying 
what was unfortunately a very hurried visit to the Pard Museum. 
This institution, which is devoted to Natural History and Ethno- 
graphy, is, of course, conducted upon purely faunistic lines, and, 
although it receives but slender assistance from the State, its 
zoological collections, under the energetic supervision of the present 
Director, Dr. E. A. Goeldi, who at the time of our visit had only 
been in charge for a year and a half, would do credit to any 
European city. The Museum is surrounded by a small but 
beautiful botanical garden, in which there are also a number of 
cages containing live animals. 
On Jan. 10th we left Para for the Amazon, paying out cable as 
we went, and on Jan. 13th reached Breves, a small town in the 
great island of Marajo, situated near the commencement of the 
network of narrow channels which connect the Pard River with 
the Amazon. At Breves we had a day’s collecting, considerably 
troubled by uncertainty as to the hour at which the ship would 
proceed on her way. On the afternoon of the following day 
(Jan. 14th) we ran aground on a mudbank at the western end of 
a channel known as the Parana de Buyassu, and remained there 
hard and fast until Jan. 20th, when we were towed off, only to 
run aground again on the following day in almost the same place, 
so that we did not get away finally until high-tide on the morning 
of Jan. 22nd. This delay, however annoying from a cable-laying 
point of view, was to a naturalist anything but unwelcome, and 
we turned it to good account. No further mishaps occurred on 
the upward voyage, and we reached Manaos, our destination, at 
the mouth of the Rio Negro, about 1000 miles from Para, on 
Feb. 8th, after calling on our way at Gurupd, Monte Alegre, 
Santarem, Obydos, Parintins, and Itacoatiara. At each of these 
places we had from one to two days’ collecting, according to 
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