3142 Correspondence of Mr. Bates. 



Extracts from the Correspondence of Mr. H. W. Bates> now forming 

 Entomological Collections in South America. 



(Concluded from page 2966). 



" Ega, Upper Amazons, 



December 23, 1851. 

 " After waiting many weary months, a vessel now leaves Ega for 

 the city (Para), and I avail myself of the opportunity to send my col- 

 lections. From July to the present month it is a very rare case the 

 departure of canoes from here down river, as during these months the 

 strong trade wind from below prevails, rendering the voyage not only 

 very protracted but dangerous, as the only means of progressing down 

 river is by tacking constantly across stream in the teeth of the wind. 

 During all this time too I have not been able to move from here, the 

 £40 you sent me in January I did not receive till the end of October, 

 thus I was quite unable to undertake a voyage further up river. I 

 have now, I believe, received all letters from England, down to the 

 date of yours (accompanying letters from my family) of August 16; 

 one packet I received at the end of October, another on the 7th of this 

 month (with £30), and a third yesterday. With the exception of two 

 months, I have spent all the time since the 1st of May in this villa, 

 and have led a life unsupportably wearisome from the want of society, 

 books, &c. Insects are very scarce in individuals, as everywhere else 

 in these dense virgin forests ; but the variety of species is wonderful, 

 and conspicuous new things are constantly turning up. The other 

 day I arranged the fine Titanus which I now send. In respect of 

 the other branches of natural history, nothing is to be done, except 

 perhaps in birds, which cannot be followed up without hunters (here 

 impossible to be found for any amount of wages). Shells there are 

 scarcely any, either living or dead. I have noted well your advice in 

 the various kind letters you have sent me, and in the collecting of in- 

 sects, believe I have followed it to the letter. Of reptiles, fishes, &c, 

 I have had excellent opportunities to arrange extensive series during 

 the two months I spent in excursions with my friends here out on the 

 Amazons ; but my cash was reduced to so low an ebb, that I dared 

 not lay out the amount of 15,9. or 20.v. in spirits and vessels necessary. 

 J n oik; excursion we were thirty days out in a canoe, with ten Indians, 

 every day with drag-net, on the edges of the vast sandy beaches upon 

 the Amazons, and in the small lakes buried in the depths of the fo- 



