TO THE AMAZON AND HOME 337 



ress which Brazil has been making of recent years. It is 

 a beautiful city, nearly under the equator. But it is not 

 merely beautiful. The docks, the dredging operations, the 

 warehouses, the stores and shops, all tell of energy and 

 success in commercial life. It is as clean, healthy, and 

 well policed a city as any of the size in the north temper- 

 ate zone. The public buildings are handsome, the private 

 dwellings attractive; there are a fine opera-house, an ex- 

 cellent tramway system, and a good museum and botan- 

 ical gardens. There are cavalry stables, where lights burn 

 all night long to protect the horses from the vampire bats. 

 The parks, the rows of palms and mango-trees, the open- 

 air restaurants, the gay life under the lights at night, all 

 give the city its own special quality and charm. Belen 

 and Manaos are very striking examples of what can be 

 done in the mid-tropics. The' governor of Para and his 

 charming wife were more than kind. 



Cherrie and Miller spent the day at the really capital 

 zoological gardens, with the curator. Miss Snethlage. Miss 

 Snethlage, a German lady, is a first-rate field and closet 

 naturalist, and an explorer of note, who has gone on foot 

 from the Xingu to the Tapajos. Most wisely she has con- 

 fined the Belen zoo to the animals of the lower Amazon 

 valley, and in consequence I know of no better local zoo- 

 logical gardens. She has an invaluable collection of birds 

 and mammals of the region; and it was a privilege to meet 

 her and talk with her. 



We also met Professor Farrabee, of the University of 

 Pennsylvania, the ethnologist. He had just finished a very 

 difficult and important trip, from Manaos by the Rio 

 Branco to the highlands of Guiana, across them on foot, 



