1896.] EXPEDITION ON TKB lOWBR 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. 0. Pickard Cambridge, who, by the bound- 

 less enthusiasm and untiring energy with which he threw himself 

 info the labour of collecting, more than justified the selection. 

 The ' Faraday,' a vessel of 5000 tons, sailed from Grravesend on 

 Dec. 13, 1895, and reached Parii on J.m. 4, 1896, after calling on 

 the way at St. Vincent, in the Cajie Verde Is., where we had a 

 most enjoyable day's collecting on JDec. 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 10th. We were 

 thus enabled to collect for several days in a clearing in the forest 

 about three-quarters of a inilo from our anchorage, besides paying 

 wliat was unfortunately a very hurried visit to the Para 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 Parti River with 

 the Amazon. At Breves we had a day's collecting, considerably 

 troubled by tiucertaiuty 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 wo reached Manaos, our destination, at 

 the mouth of the ]iio Negro, about 1000 miles from Para, on 

 Feb. 8th, after calling on our way at Qurupa, Monte Alegre, 

 Santarem, Obydos, Parinlius, and Itacoatiara. At each of these 

 places we had from one to two days' collecting, according to 



50* 



