2718 Insects. 



there is nothing much to eat. I lived on salt fish and mandioca root 

 nearly two months, having mandioca and fish for breakfast, and, to 

 vary the thing, fish and mandioca for dinner. Once only I ventured 

 on a hunting excursion with some neighbouring Indians, to shoot 

 pacas. We left at 2 o'clock, a. m., — two darkies, self, and five dogs, 

 — threading our way, with silent paddles, in the dark, through narrow 

 shady creeks : we got somewhere out into a solitary creek, called 

 Oojara, amongst the islands, by half-past 4 a.m.: we then slept till 

 daybreak, when one of the Indians leaped ashore with the dogs, his 

 knife and hatchet, and cut a hole through the dense wall of forest to 

 enter. We shot two pacas and a cutia in a very short time ; but as 

 the heat of the day came on we saw nothing more, so cooked and ate 

 the cutia for dinner. The paca is an amphibious Rodent, about the 

 size of a spaniel ; meat superior to sucking-pig. 



" At Carepi there is always a fresh breeze from the sea, which is 

 100 miles below. A German has squatted in the woods close by, and 

 was a capital companion for me, as he collected beetles : he had been 

 a soldier at Rio Janeiro, and travelled on foot over a great part of the 

 Brazils. We took a great many beetles here (although scarcely one 

 is to be found around Para), about a hundred species of Longicornes, 

 ten Cicindelas, two Megacephala, large Brachini, and many curious 

 genera — such as Ctenostoma, Agra, Brenthus, Inca, &c. Butterflies, 

 birds, ferns, &c, were scarce ; but the Urania Leilus was constantly 

 flying by in front of the house, all travelling one way from sunrise to 

 sunset. I was greatly annoyed by the bats here : they awoke me 

 every night, flying around my hammock : I was always careful to keep 

 my feet well covered, but once one bit me on the hip : some were 

 two feet in expanse of wing ; but the most dangerous bloodsucker is 

 a small one with a gray breast. Although half-starved I enjoyed my- 

 self much at Carepi, and now find the city dull and inhospitable after 

 the kindness of the neighbouring Indians. 



" The wet season has now set in : it rains about 1 £ inch per day, 

 and the water rolls down the streets in torrents. It is finest before 

 breakfast, and I walk for pleasure most mornings in my old haunts. 

 The butterflies are in fine plumage, and all more numerous in the 

 glimpses of sunshine : plenty of Mechanites are out sailing about in 

 their liveries of velvety black and red, with spots of bright yellow. 

 The Callidryae and Rhodocerag are very numerous, of some eight or 

 ten species. Pieris Monuste is common ; and the glorious Morpho 

 Menelaus is blazing about, flapping its huge wings of dazzling azure 

 along the broad forest roads. There are more flowers too, and the 



