336 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



ing towns; at one we stopped to take on cargo. Every- 

 where there was growth and development. The change 

 since the days when Bates and Wallace came to this then 

 poor and utterly primitive region is marvellous. One of its 

 accompaniments has been a large European, chiefly south 

 European, immigration. The blood is everywhere mixed; 

 there is no color line, as in most English-speaking countries, 

 and the negro and Indian strains are very strong; but the 

 dominant blood, the blood already dominant in quantity, 

 and that is steadily increasing its dominance, is the olive- 

 white. 



Only rarely did the river show its full width. Gener- 

 ally we were in channels or among islands. The surface 

 of the water was dotted with little islands of floating vege- 

 tation. Miller said that much of this came from the la- 

 goons such as those where he had been hunting, beside the 

 Solimoens — lagoons filled with the huge and splendid Vic- 

 toria lily, and with masses of water hyacinths. Miller, who 

 was very fond of animals and always took much care of 

 them, had a small collection which he was bringing back 

 for the Bronx Zoo. An agouti was so bad-tempered that 

 he had to be kept solitary; but three monkeys, big, mid- 

 dle-sized, and little, and a young peccary formed a happy 

 family. The largest monkey cried, shedding real tears, 

 when taken in the arms and pitied. The middle-sized 

 monkey was stupid and kindly, and all the rest of the 

 company imposed on it; the little monkey invariably rode 

 on its back, and the peccary used it as a head pillow when 

 it felt sleepy. 



Belen, the capital of the state of Para, was an admi- 

 rable illustration of the genuine and almost startling prog- 



